Juliette’s MCU Marvel Reading Recs!
Hey hey, Cape & Cowl faithful! Did you see all those new Marvel Studios announcements? HOLY MOLY!!! So maybe now you’re asking yourself “What comics should I read to get ready for all those hella rad new movies and shows?” I am here to help.
This is my list of comics I like that you can pick up in advance of the next phase of MCU fun. It’s not exhaustive, but it’s the ones I really enjoy and the ones that made me go “I understood that reference!” when all the cool new movies and shows were announced.
WandaVision is the first new show going up on Disney+ and hot dang, it looks WEIRD and COOL!!! If you haven’t seen the new trailer, watch it here. Go ahead… I’ll wait.
Wasn’t that COOL? Okay, here’s what I suggest reading to get ready for the show.
Wanda Vision
Anthology
Marvel is aware that people will want to get to know these two characters better before the show comes out and they are prepared! They’re releasing an anthology collection about this literal power couple at the end of December. It’s going to include classic backstory from 70s comics as well as more recent events to give folks a solid introduction to the comics version of these two characters.
The Vision, Vol. 1: Little Worse Than a Man
Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire
The Vision just wants to be normal, so he decides to make a robot family for himself and move into the suburbs. Turns out, however, that making a family using the memories of your dead wife (Scarlet Witch) and moving them into a less than welcoming suburbia is a pretty dangerous idea!
This series is BRILLIANT! It’s super weird, surprisingly dark, with a kind of Betty Friedan meets superheroes meets thriller horror movies vibe that I absolutely loved. It’s too early to say how much, if any, of WandaVision is going to be based on this book, but just the fact of Wanda and Vision being in a nice suburban home playing house with weird undercurrents makes it seem tonally similar. Even if there’s no connection, this is a dang great book and you should read it!!!
Kamala Khan is a normal teenager living in Jersey City. She goes to high school, she goes to mosque, she argues with her brother, she reads fanfiction about her favorite superheroes (mostly Captain Marvel)… Then one day a big weird fog shows up and suddenly Kamala’s shapeshifting?!? Now she has to decide what her brand new powers mean and how she can use them to protect her community!
Ms. Marvel was an amazing breakout when the character was first introduced in 2014. As the first Pakistani American Muslim superhero, Kamala broke down barriers and was an immediate favorite, connecting with and inspiring readers of ALL demographics! She’s a cool character with a rad story and I’m so hecking excited to finally see her on screen!!!!
If you haven’t already seen the sizzle reel for Ms. Marvel, check it out here!
There are two editions of her first series that I would recommend starting with:
Ms. Marvel, Hardcover Vol. 1
G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Ian Herring
This is a big, beautiful hardcover edition of the first 11 issues of Kamala’s stories. Great for folks who want a book to match their other Marvel hardcovers on a shelf, who like a nice dust jacketed hardcover, and who want to see the biggest, clearest version of Adrian Alphona and Ian Herring’s beautiful art!
Speaking of the art, this is an especially cool looking comic! The art on this first Ms. Marvel series is pretty wild and wacky (spoiler alert, it doesn’t match the cover), but in a charming and very approachable way. This is one where I personally would want to see it as big as possible to get all the nuances of Ian Herring’s stupendous colors and all the weird little extra doodles and jokes Adrian Alphona snuck into his panels.
Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan
G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Ian Herring
In the last couple of years Marvel has been rereleasing stories in smaller sized paperback collections that match standard Young Adult and Middle Grade graphic novel formats. They’re geared at getting younger readers into the stories, but there’s no reason grown up Marvel fans can’t get in on the action, too. This volume contains the same comics as that hardcover, but it’s a smaller format at a more affordable price point, for folks who really just want to jump into the story! These editions are accessible to every age, much like Ms. Marvel herself!
I am SO HYPED for this movie! I loved Taika Waititi’s take on Thor in Ragnarok and I lost my shizz when Natalie Portman lifted the hammer at SDCC, signaling that we’d be getting Jane Foster as Thor. Now it’s been announced that Christian Bale is on board to play Gorr, the God Butcher and I can’t believe how excited I am that they’re using this story! It’s clear this movie is going to be a love letter to the epic 7-year masterpiece that is Jason Aaron’s Thor run, which is SO COOL!
If tackling a 7-year run of comics sounds intimidating, good news! I can help narrow down some places to jump in.
Thor by Jason Aaron, the Complete Collection
Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, et al
Listen, I know I just said I was going to help you pick specific stories to jump in with and I will, but in case you want to read the whole run that Waititi is clearly drawing on, this series of complete collections is the way to go. I’m a little allergic to only highlighting writers in complete collection titles (which you will see in a few of my recommendations below), but in this case these editions are a really solid way to start at the beginning of a big long story and keep reading everything in its intended order, including everything I’m describing below.
I super recommend these for the comics completists and folks who, like me, collected all the single issues and want an easier way to get some rereading in before the movie!
Thor God of Thunder, Vol. 1: The God Butcher
Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, Dean White
Pantheons of gods have been disappearing and it looks like someone may be travelling the universe to kill them off. The God Butcher is swift, deadly, and mysterious, and now he’s coming for Asgard. This story is told in three different eras at once. We see young Thor in his pre-Mjolnir days having his first brush with this danger. We see present day Thor, hammer-wielding and a member of the Avengers, trying to solve the mystery of who is killing gods. And we see future old man Thor, one-eyed and presiding over the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Asgard. THIS IS SO EPIC!!!
I will admit that in 2014 when this series started, I wasn’t a Thor reader. I’d dipped my toes, but hadn’t gotten into Marvel’s take on Norse mythology in a big way. Then this series started and I was hooked! I fell headfirst into one of the best Marvel epics I had ever read and, tbh, it’s still one of the best. Ribic’s art is STUNNING and Aaron’s writing is rich and complex and feels like real epic mythology. I cannot recommend this run strongly enough!
Thor, Vol. 1: The Goddess of Thunder
Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matt Wilson
Whosoever holds this hammer, if she be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR.
The Odinson has had a crisis and is no longer worthy of wielding Mjolnir, which has been left abandoned on the moon. Now a mysterious figure arrives and proves herself worthy by lifting the legendary hammer, taking on the mantle of Thor! But who is this new Thor? What face is under the mask and why is Mjolnir’s power acting different for her?
SPOILER ALERT: It’s Jane Foster!!! Most of us know this now, but at the time the single issues were coming out it was a big mystery. Even if you already know, this comic has everything. Truly awesome art from Dauterman and Wilson (holy heck, those two do the BEST frost giants!!!), badass action, a who’s who of Thor-related characters showing up, wild Asgardian politics, and Odin getting slapped in the face! (Odin’s a jerk who deserves it.)
P.S. There are two volumes of this series, but it’s immediately continued by the same creative team with another title. Keep reading to see!
The Mighty Thor, Vol. 1: Thunder In Her Veins
Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matt Wilson
The Mighty Thor is the protector of Midgard and Asgard, battling epic threats without revealing her secret identity as Dr. Jane Foster. As the goddess of thunder she fends off Malekith and tries to figure out whether or not to trust Loki, but as Jane she’s fighting cancer that only impacts her mortal body and is maybe made worse by taking on the aspect of Thor.
This is the continuation of the previous story, but with a different title and some new issue numbers. You can jump in here or pick up from where you left off in Thor: Who Wields the Hammer? just as easily. Some of this story gets heavy (hi, cancer), but it’s also massively exciting adventures and full of fun for five volumes. Hella good comics, can recommend!
I love, love, love, love, love She-Hulk! There’s something about a strong woman who has the ability to hulk out or look like an inconspicuous white lady, but chooses to go about her days in both her lawyer and superhero jobs somewhere in between those two states, as a slightly giant, hella buff, green badass. She’s green in court, she’s green in the office, she’s green on the weekends, she’s all green all the time. Because that’s what makes her feel like her best self! That’s hecking cool!
I don’t know at all what the Disney+ She-Hulk show is going to do with the character, but here are the books that made me love Jennifer Walters.
She-Hulk, by Soule & Pulido
Charles Soule, Javier Pulido, Kevin Wada (covers)
Jennifer Walters is a damn fine attorney, but when her law firm starts using her for their image instead of giving her meaningful cases, it’s time to break a table and move on. She starts her own law practice with the help of paralegal Angie Huang, who comes with an impressive resume, a strange connection to a monkey named Hei Hei, and some seriously mysterious secrets. From this point on it’s all unusual legal cases, tracking down mysteries with Hellcat, and trying to keep her new business afloat while she’s busy being a superhero!
Charles Soule writes a very focused, determined She-Hulk and brings his own experience as a lawyer to her story. The stories center around lawyering in the coolest possible way, from taking on Dr. Doom’s son as a client, to fighting off enemies over a mysterious legal brief, to going up against Matt Murdoch (aka Daredevil) in a lawsuit against Captain America! This book is a showcase for Jen’s character to shine and it was one of those series that honestly made me feel great about myself when I read it because Jen is just so cool and so strong as a person. Plus it had those amazing Kevin Wada covers, which I think are in the collection and maybe worth the price of admission all on their own!
She-Hulk, Vol. 1: Deconstructed
Mariko Tamaki, Nico Leon, Matt Milla
Jennifer Walters has just been through a major trauma. She barely survived the second Civil War (big battle between factions of Marvel superheroes) and she had to watch her cousin Bruce die. She’s trying to pick herself back up, but part of that means not being She-Hulk for a while. Partially because she wants some distance and, secretly, because she keeps losing control and turning into an old-school, rage monster, grey Hulk! Jen keeps trying to use her work to help people who really need it, while repressing the PTSD that’s giving her panic attacks. It does not go well.
Okay, real talk, I don’t know if I really recommend this to people who have never read a She-Hulk comic. You should probably know Jen before digging into this one. Probably. That said, if you’re a She-Hulk fan and you somehow missed this book, you 100% need to pick it up!
I’m not generally in favor of stories that de-power women superheroes, but the way Mariko Tamaki writes Jen is a love letter to strong women who need help finding their strength again. It’s a powerful reminder of what it takes to come back from something hard and horrible, which in turn reminds you that YOU can come back, too. It’s a story about resilience and leaning on your friends and one of the best depictions of mental health trouble that I’ve ever read. And also what happens when you’re using online baking shows as therapy, but someone attacks the host during a livestream and you just have to Hulk out and save them, because no one threatens your baking shows, gosh dangit!!!!!
So, um… maybe I do actually recommend it for people who don’t know Jen after all, because this is a great book for anyone who needs a reminder that we can make it through the darkness, which, this year, is all of us.
So, so, so excited to see Ironheart in the works! In the comics, Riri Williams is a kid from Chicago who is an absolute certified genius and attracts Tony Stark’s attention when she, just for fun, decides to make her own super suit from scraps. He mentors her in a vaguely MCU Iron Man plus Spider-Man way, and when he falls into a coma she steps into his role for a while, which is also pretty Spider-Man Far From Home. I’m really curious to see what they do with her story in a post-Tony world, but regardless, these are the books I’d jump in with.
Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 1: Riri Williams
Brian Michael Bendis, Stefano Caselli, Marta Gracia
Riri Williams steps up to take on the responsibilities Tony Stark left behind, but is she ready for the role? Sure she’s a certified super genius who started building her own tech when she was ten years old, but Iron Man left some big metal shoes to fill. This is the story of Riri owning her responsibility and taking on the role of Ironheart!
Much like the Ms. Marvel volumes I recced above, there are two editions you can pick between for this story. This edition is the first five issues of the series in the standard Marvel trade paperback format. A good choice for folks who like those standard trade paperback sizes and want a book to match the rest of their Marvel collections.
Ironheart, Vol. 1: Those With Courage
Eve Ewing, Kevin Libranda, Matt Milla, et al.
Ironheart has a new suit and a new purpose, stepping out of Tony Stark’s shadow and forging her own way! Riri is working in a lab at M.I.T., but the relationship is… not great. Tensions with the institution come to a head at the same time as a group of world leaders need rescuing AND someone from Riri’s past reappears in her life, bringing back a lot of hard memories.
This series is great because you get to see Ironheart really doing her own thing. Eve Ewing leans hard into some of the quirks of this teenage supergenius and writes Riri with a refreshing authenticity. I jumped into this volume without having read the previous Ironheart stories in Invincible Iron Man and I can for sure recommend it as an option.
Ironheart, Vol. 1: Riri Williams
Brian Michael Bendis, Stefano Caselli, Marta Gracia
This series is just everything I recced above bound as two smaller, consistently titled paperbacks! Part of the series of smaller paperback editions in that familiar Young Adult/Middle Grade format, Vol. 1 is the all 11 issues of Riri’s Invincible Iron Man series and Vol. 2 is all 12 issues of Ironheart, so you get a seamless Riri reading experience. What you gain in length of story and affordability, you kind of lose in quality of art on the page, so the choice really depends on what you prefer in your comics reading. It’s still a really good reading experience and I totally recommend it for folks who want to dive into Riri’s story!
Listen, with some of these recommendations I’m not as 100% sure which comics are serving as the inspiration for the MCU stories. This is not the case with Hawkeye.
Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon
Matt Fraction, David Aja, Javier Pulido
Back when the first Avengers movie came out and people got excited about the onscreen version of Hawkeye, most longterm comics readers weren’t that enthusiastic about the character. Sure the MCU version of Clint Barton was cool, but in the comics he hadn’t really been in a breakout title, he had a history of kind of silly costumes, and he didn’t have any powers. Sure, there were die-hard faithfuls, but he wasn’t exactly a household favorite.
Which is why I wound up spending most of 2012 practically grabbing comic shop customers by the lapels and shouting “Listen, I know it’s Hawkeye, but you HAVE TO READ THIS COMIC! TRUST ME!!!”
Matt Fraction and David Aja completely revitalized the character in this series. They leaned into his everyman side, showing Clint getting patched up at the hospital after Avengers missions, spilling coffee on his shirt, accidentally adopting an injured dog (Pizza Dog!), renting an apartment in a building owned by Russion mobsters, and generally ruining his personal relationships. They made it clear that while Hawkeye does extraordinary things, he’s also a real person with weaknesses and foibles. And they made us love him!
Clint has his fair share of superheroics, too. He serves as a hero mentor to Kate Bishop, also known as Hawkeye, who is a teenage archer and member of the Young Avengers (see below) with an emotional maturity way above his own. He winds up in car chases and boat chases (he’s great at boats) and fighting evil circus performers. He’s also a deaf character whose hearing aids aren’t always working, which is part of why there’s a whole incredible issue of this series with dialog in ASL.
I know I’m going on and on, but this was such an unexpected and spectacular comic that it’s hard to pull back. There are a lot of differences between comics Clint Barton and the MCU version, but behind the scenes Hawkeye filming images have confirmed he’s going to be running around with Kate Bishop and a dog who looks suspiciously similar to Pizza Dog, so I for one am thrilled by the prospect of getting to see some Hawkguy on my screen
I’ll be honest… I’m not really into Doctor Strange. I think it’s the only MCU movie I haven’t watched, because I didn’t see it in theaters and I just couldn’t get into it when I tried to watch it at home. But there’s one announcement related to this movie that is making me SO DAMN EXCITED: Xochitl Gomez is going to be playing Miss America Chavez!!!
America Chavez is a badass Latinx lesbian superhero who can punch her way through dimensions. However cool that makes her sound, go ahead and triple it. America is just that rad! Bonus excitement because I really loved Xochitl Gomez in the recent Netflix Baby Sitters Club and it’s going to be fun to see her in more stuff.
Young Avengers
Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson
As far as I’m concerned, this is the ultimate teenage superhero book! This iteration of the Young Avengers team is made up of America Chavez (that’s our girl on the cover, ready to do some punching), Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye (see above), Noh-Varr aka Marvel Boy, David Alleyne aka Prodigy, Kid Loki (see below), and everyone’s favorite angsty couple, Billy Kaplan/Wiccan and Teddy Altman/Hulkling. These disparate superheroic teens come together to fight a threat that adults aren’t seeing and that’s turning their parents bad. It’s a wild ride that starts in space and jumps through dimensions, mostly thanks to America’s superpowered punching.
These teens are REAL TEENS. Their adventures are punctuated by misunderstandings, kissing, attempts at facial hair, dancing to their favorite songs, more kissing, fighting off evil parents, tumblr posts, emotional breakups, and maybe some more kissing. And they’re all having the times of their lives, except for when they’re deeply sad and angsty. Plus the team is queer. Oh so wonderfully queer. Like, a whole team made up of disaster queers. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. And also a beautiful book, from the team behind my all-time favorite comic, The Wicked + The Divine. This is an absolute fave and the book where America Chavez became the beloved character we know and love!
Plus, and this is some real speculation now, chances are the MCU is gearing up for a future Young Avengers something. With the announcements of Kate Bishop and America Chavez, a show that has multiple incarnations of Loki, a hint in the WandaVision trailer that Wanda’s maybe pregnant (Billy is her son), Secret Invasion getting an official announcement (Teddy is both Kree and Skrull), and Cassie Lang being a teen in Endgame (she’s on the original Young Avengers roster), things are shaping up to maybe give us some kind of screen adaptation of this very book down the line. So check it out!
America, Vol. 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez
Gabby Rivera, Joe Quinones, José Villarubia, et al.
America Chavez has been part of superhero teams and has led teams herself, but now she has a much more daunting and exciting responsibility: college! Attending Sottomayor University (with Prodigy) is only one of her responsibilities. She still has to contend with inter-dimensional threats, a weird cult that appears to be worshipping her, her relationship with her girlfriend, and travelling back in time to punch Hitler in the face!
America was the breakout star of Young Avengers, so it only made sense that she should get her own book! Gabby Rivera really explored America’s identity as a character from a pan-Latinx alternate dimension and leaned into her connection to elders and ancestors, while still letting her go full out as a bust-up rebel who mostly wishes she could punch through her problems. This one is fun, fun, fun!
Does anyone already enjoying the MCU really need a refresher on Loki at this point? Probably not. Is reading Loki comics fun? Absolutely! Plus, there’s some specific stuff referenced in that teaser (watch it here) that I want to call out, so let’s get our Loki on!
Vote Loki
Christopher Hastings, Langdon Foss, Chris Chuckry, et al.
Loki is a trickster god. He’s been a big time villain and a repentant antihero. He’s not to be trusted. He’s the God of Lies. So obviously his next ambition is to become the President of the United States! (Why yes, this comic was originally coming out in 2016. How could you tell?) This whole story is a fun play on American politics, with attack ads from the Avengers and Dr. Doom villainy reframed as an excuse for Loki to demonstrate his skill at foreign policy. But will the American people actually elect President Laufeyson?
You all saw that bit at the end of the teaser, right? I laughed so hard to see this miniseries referenced so directly! AMAZING. Who knows what they’re doing with the premise, but this is clearly a must-read before the show. This collection has the whole Vote Loki story, as well as a couple classic Loki-tastic issues from the 1960s, so you can get a taste of some of that original Jack Kirby and Stan Lee flavor! I know we’re probably all electioned out, but this is a fun farce and worth giving a read!
Journey Into Mystery, Vol. 1: Fear Itself
Kieron Gillen, Doug Braithwaite, Ulises Arreola
Loki died. Then he came back. As a child version of himself. And possibly as the only one who can save Asgard from the approach of the Great Serpent who threatens to destroy everything. The young Trickster God is looking for redemption for his past self and a trip to the underworld to look into a prophecy is the first step.
This is the first volume of a PHENOMENAL comic run! It’s an intense story that uses an epic mythological adventure to take you to soaring heights of character growth and crushing tragedy, with lots of puns thrown in, as is the Gillen way. It’s also the Loki story that directly precedes the Young Avengers collection I recommended above, and by the same writer, so if you like one you should probably try the other. Really, really cannot recommend this one enough if you’re at all into the Loki mythos!
The thing is… this series has been out of print for a dang long time, so it’s really hard to find. There are the shorter trade paperback collections, of which this is the first, or two bigger trade paperback volumes called Journey into Mystery by Kieron Gillen: The Complete Collection, which are probably what I would recommend if you can track them down. This is the only time that I would maybe not even bother asking the good folks at Cape & Cowl to try and order this (sorry, guys) and instead suggest you try some stores that stock used trades or a different LCS that has been around since these books were in print. It’s going to take something of an epic quest to get these books, but it’s absolutely worth the effort!
Hi, I love the idea of cute Groot animated shorts! I expect they would have shown up at the start of movies in a normal context, but it’s going to be fun to sit down and watch some cute tree antics from home, too. I doubt these are going to reference specific stories, so here are some fun Groot books as general recommendations!
I Am Groot
Christopher Hastings, Flaviano Armentaro, Marcio Menyz
Cute little Groot has been sucked into a wormhole and is now exploring space by himself. Will he find his friends? Or anyone at all who can translate “I am Groot” over and over? Can he trust the new friends he meets along the way? This is a fun outing for our favorite tree dude, with some really cool space hijinks and some legit action along the way!
Rocket Raccoon and Groot: Tall Tails
Skottie Young, Filipe Andrade, Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Rocket Raccoon and Groot are best buds, so it only makes sense for them to have a great time going on wacky space adventures together! Rocket is an intergalactic criminal mastermind, Groot is his faithful companion, and their adventures are punctuated by lots of favorites, from Guardians of the Galaxy characters to heavy hitters like Captain Marvel. This compact little paperback has 10 issues worth of weird, wild, and fun times!
And that’s it from me! There are plenty of other books to read with these characters and plenty of MCU announcements I didn’t even touch, but I think this is a pretty solid starting place. I hope you have fun reading!
One last thing. If you’ve looked into the stuff I’m recommending, you’ll notice a lot of it came out in the mid-2010s, as part of what was called the Marvel NOW era. It was a great era for Marvel publishing that didn’t lean hard into a dark and gritty version of heroes, but was full of stories about regular people stepping up to take on new powers, increased visibility for folks who hadn’t seen themselves as heroes before, and actually a lot of hopeful stories about the power of the human (or superhuman) spirit. If there’s one thing I took away from all those MCU announcements, it’s that a lot of what’s coming on screen looks like it’s moving into that exciting, uplifting direction, which I think is what we all need these days!
Have a happy New Year and may our 2021 be a better, brighter time with lots of hella rad comics!!!