It’s mostly their superheroes, but there’s also a ton of Star Wars.
They haven’t done a free month in like 3 years. I’ll be back later with some recommendations :)
Code TARGETMU2019
It’s tempting.
I went ahead and signed up; they only gave me one month free for some reason though. I went ahead and cancelled so I don’t forget.
Anyone have recommendations?
The MU app’s curation and discovery features seem to be completely inverse from what I’d find helpful. Lots of ways to search by character or creator, newest or oldest, and a “start here” section with either original appearances in the 60s and 70s or a bunch of issue #1 jumping-off points from the past year or two to get you hooked on current series.
Whereas, I’m open to any character, genre, or creator, but would ideally want to find completed stories from ~5-20 years ago (enough time to get some perspective and for cream to rise to the top, not enough to feel severely dated, if that makes sense). Doesn’t seem to be much of a way to surface that kind of stuff.
I’ve been a subscriber for a couple of years now, I think I’ve just passed 1000 read comics, can’t recommend Marvel Unlimited enough, there is so much in there, but do agree it is a bit lacking on the ‘what should I read next’.
Some things I have read and enjoyed that I think fit your criteria:
Ed Brubaker’s Immortal Iron Fist
Superior Spider-Man (where Doc Ock takes over Peters body).
Peter David’s X-Factor (the multiple man based one - might be a bit long),
All of Matt Fraction’s short Hawkeye series.
I read somewhere else that when you hit your second month, they charge you zero. So the trick would be to cancel during the second month.
Seconding these, they were interesting. Haven’t read the others.
It’s as strange as it sounds, but it works. It can be a bit confusing without keeping up with spidey stories - JJ is now the mayor, Peter has a tech company, no more MJ marriage.
Also very good! It’s more of a slice of life story, inspiring one of those upcoming disney series.
I’ll throw you a few of my favorites:
- Amazing Spider-man (1963) 346, 347. 90’s Venom, right before he went heroic
- Moon Knight, volume 4 (2011). Skip if you aren’t liking it.
- Wolverine, volume 3 (2003), issues 66 to 72.
“What If” might be for you. It’s all one-off variations of other comic stories. Some are fantastic, others are fantastically bad. It’s a fun series. Browse them by the covers and see what’s interesting :)
You’ll want to avoid most of the recent big events. Other than a few exceptions they’re not good.
Immortal Hulk and Thor God of Thunder are highly recommended series by friends. Those are my reading lists for the month.
I really like the new Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) series a lot. It’s pretty YA, but it’s just fun.
I subscribed about four years ago, and have never regretted it. I read comics daily, and almost everything I want to read is on there, including the complete run of Amazing Spider-Man from 196x onwards.
If you want suggestions for what to read, or a way to track your reading, you should check out the Complete Marvel Reading Order:
https://cmro.travis-starnes.com/
I consider it an essential companion to Marvel Unlimited. You can search on a ton of different things, including by story arc.
Ever wanted to read House of M? Here is the complete story arc, tracking all 50 issues across multiple series.
Wondering who Thanos is and where he came from? Here is a list of all 281 of his appearances, including his first appearance in (surprise) Iron Man #55.
Do you just want to read storylines that are considered essential, where major characters or events happen? Here is the Essentials order, which whittles the complete 29,522-issue order down to a svelte 6,209 issues.
And most importantly, every issue is ordered based on continuity, with an emphasis on readability. There’s a whole FAQ explaining it, but basically they try to keep characters in their correct locations. So if there’s a two-issue storyline where Spider-Man is locked in a basement, you won’t read an issue in the middle where he’s off in Arizona.
It’s really cool, and you can make a free account. I would be lost in Marvel Unlimited without it.
That “I would be lost” phrase? That’s the biggest issue with Marvel Unlimited. It’s like Marvel provides it because there’s a market for it, but they don’t really want you to use it.
But it’s great value, as long as you don’t mind sometimes being confused over what to read next, especially when Marvel goes on one of theirs large events and the story just goes batshit crazy for a few months jumping over god knows how many different series.
You can’t even have something as basic as a pull list, I don’t think, where you “subscribe” to a series.
Sadly, that’s a comparable experience to buying Marvel comics in real time, too. Those little editor’s notes telling you to read Issue X of Iron Man before reading the issue in your hands are long gone. Marvel’s event habits of the last decade or so have only made it worse. It’s impossible to tell what issues outside of the core series are essential, and which are unreadable crap with no reason to exist. At least with MU, there’s no incremental cost to trial and error.
I think this is a little overdramatic. A library also doesn’t tell you what to read next, but that doesn’t mean “they don’t really want you to use it.” I still think it’s amazing to have access to over 25,000 comics for a monthly fee. With a very few exceptions, I can think of any storyline I’ve ever heard of and be reading it within seconds.
And they do have reading lists! They regularly put out guides to specific characters or storylines, usually right when they’re most relevant. When the new X-Men movie came out, they posted guides for a bunch of famous X-Men storylines. After D23 when they announced the new series, Marvel Unlimited posted reading lists for Moon Knight and She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel and Loki and Blade and The Eternals.
You mean like Spider-Verse, with 31 different comics?
Or what about Civil War, with 104 issues over at least 15 different series?
Yes, they have lists of events, and the end of each issue always prompts you for the next issue, along with including any associated reading lists. But if you need to shore up gaps, or make a pull list, you can do that with other resources like CMRO that I mentioned earlier.
I think they’d prefer if people were getting the books on paper, not digital, but they provide Unlimited because they need to keep with the times, and it’s better than having people just pirate the comics.
And sure, events work decently if you’re connected, not so much if you’re offline.
Or they’re providing Marvel Unlimited because they realize that reading comics digitally is just as valid as reading physical comics. I’m not sure why you’re ascribing some sort of cynical intent when Marvel is the company leading the way with their digital policy.
And yes, Reading Lists don’t work when you’re offline, just like how you can’t browse Netflix movies offline or shop at Amazon while offline. That’s just how things work in our connected world.
Fair enough
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone! I’ve been sampling some of them and some that I’ve found on my own.
This is my favorite so far. Thanks!
Two more great series for anyone else looking for recommendations:
The Vision: A chilling and thought-provoking tragedy with echoes of Blade Runner and touching on everything from Shakespeare to P vs. NP.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics and the choose-your-own-adventure version of Hamlet fame puts together an always charming and frequently hilarious romp.
Fraction’s Hawkeye series is awesome.
I’ve mostly been reading the Star Wars stuff, but I read through the “new” Eternals series (Gaiman writing the first part), and thought that was pretty good - worth a read, I think.
1602 is also an awesome series, though it’s again Gaiman, and I’m predisposed to liking almost everything he writes. Considering rereading it.
Read the X-23: Innocence Lost (2005) series - basically the X-23 origin story sans Logan. I thought it was OK.
Currently reading Gail Simone’s Deadpool run, since I’ve enjoyed some of her other work.
I’m 80% sure that the Hawkeye series on Disney+ is going to be based on this, just based on the design of the logos and everything they used to promote it. If so, I’m really excited to see where it goes!
Just finished the Silver Surfer series that started in 2014, and it might be my new favorite of what I’ve read on MU so far. Just delightfully whimsical, imaginative, and heartfelt.
https://www.marvel.com/comics/series/18310/silver_surfer_2014_-_2015
Here’s another potentially useful resource. This site has a whole bunch of different reading orders to slice things up into depending on your interests, but this one seems most aligned with my tastes (wanting to enjoy the best creative works on the service, not absorb a bunch of continuity).
Ah - thanks. This was exactly the kind of list I’ve been looking for. I don’t really see the point of trying to keep up with superhero continuity anyway - I just need a good set of stories to be reading during the next month+ while I have the subscription.
Yeah, that site looks like it has a wealth of best of lists and other stuff for people to enjoy the best comics Marvel has to offer. Thanks.
Going to start reading that Silver Surfer series next…