r/MarvelUnlimited • u/TuphlosR • 4d ago
How good is Unlimited.
With Unlimited coming to an end it is perhaps hard to tell right not sure, but right now I'm watching the whole Marvel movies/series in chronological order.
I would love to do the same thing with the comics. Is it difficult to do that with Unlimited..? I have read that there are ''guides'' that will help you through that process. My question is how complete is the guide. Will there be missing comics like Spiderman comic 1,2,3, 4 is missing, 5,6,7 is missing.
Thank you very much
After reading all the comments, I want to clarify something.
I don't know anything about comics. Thats why I thought it would be for the best to start at the beginning and make my way through all the marvel heroes.
From what I have read that is not ideal.
I am a big Marvel Champions boardgame fan and Marvel Champions is based on the comics not the movies as far as I know.
That's why I would love to know their characteristics, history , fighting style , persona of every hero, villain and ally's. It would make the game come to life more.
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u/Economy_Block_6305 4d ago
Unlimited is closing, new Marvel Comics powers by webtoons will be live on 11/16/26….google for more info
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u/S1mongreedwell 4d ago
Maybe try reading *A* comic before saying “well, I guess I’ll read 10s of thousands of them!”
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u/FlamewaveKal 4d ago
Ok. First? Going comic by comic is absolutely insane... I say as someone who is trying to do that, other people have mentioned this. But I recommend finding a character or 2 you like, and find a guide for them and start that, do not be afraid to skip if something, and feel free to jump back in at the start of a new run.
on the side something like the Continuity guide is great for what you need to read for the greater Marvel universe if you find something you don't like? Skip it this isnt a videogame. You dont need to 100% it
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u/S1mongreedwell 3d ago
You also don’t need to 100% video games! It’s a terrific way for most people to not have fun.
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u/FlamewaveKal 4d ago edited 3d ago
If anything its a way to see a bit of whats to come. If only stylistically for Marvel , bc the 60s are a different beast, and I like stan's work, but i'd be lying if I didnt say its an acquired taste , and only reading it could drive you crazy
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u/dr_olfin 3d ago
If you want an overview of the "overarching story" (if there even is one, which honestly there isn't) there's a great book called "All of the Marvels" by Douglas Wolk. He actually DID read all of Marvel and wrote a book about it. I guarantee reading that will save you a lot of time.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Marvels-Amazing-Universe-Superhero/dp/178816928X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0
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u/EtherCJ 4d ago
If you treat it like a full time job it's several years of reading. And even worse the beginning is written for literal children and while there's a charm reading silver age comics you will likely find it hard to continue.
My suggestion is pick a character or team and read some best of stories from them. Then branch out to a few more characters. Then add a long run from one of the characters you read and liked. And only then consider a comprehensive reading list.
And even then I would suggest skipping ahead to the modern age. A common suggestion is with Avengers Disassembled (or the lead in to it).
See:
https://www.continuityguide.net/
https://comicbookreadingorders.com/marvel/
They both have reading guides that start at the beginning and various other entry points.
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u/ohnoabanagain 4d ago
I agree with this guy. That said, I'm working through the order and have loved the experience - warts and all.
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u/DB10389 4d ago
Fucking forget the chronological order. What characters are you interested in?
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u/TuphlosR 4d ago
From what I've seen so far from movie/series I like them all.
Spider-man , captain america, iron man , luke cage , jessica Jones, daredevil. The list goes on.
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u/DB10389 4d ago
For Spider-Man, do Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis. It's amazing, and 100% it's own universe. For Cap, definetly Ed Brubaker's run. For Daredevil, Frank Miller's run. For JJ I'd say Alias also from Brian Michael Bendis is her quintessential run. Not gonna speak on the other 2 since I don't know a lot about them lol.
But yeah this is more or less how it goes. These are the best runs to start on for these characters imo, and flat out some of the best overall. By that time you'll be branching out into other characters and discover more stuff from those. It's a matter of reading whatever interests you, not of a chronological order
Comics don't work like that. The universe, generally, doesn't evolve as a connected story, and even when it does it's often not very remarkable, and it doesn't affect whatever you're reading. The good stuff everyone loves and points to is the character writing in their runs. What each writer does with the characters they choose
Open for more recs :)
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u/dr_olfin 3d ago edited 3d ago
I agree with all of this, although I'd recommend Bendis' Daredevil run as a good modern jumping on point, especially as it crosses over with Alias.
Like others have said, it's WAY better to start with modern runs of one or two characters you already like than to try to read EVERYTHING.
I would also HIGHLY recommend starting with Ultimate Spider-Man. It's an excellent starting point for new readers.
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u/Azmidai_Cyaquil 2d ago
this is pretty much how i went into it.
Had been playing Midnight Suns and wanted to read something with Magik in it.
picked a comic which she was part of, started reading, ran into crossover events happening and then went "oh where did that come from." and then found myself falling down a rabbit hole of storylines and comics from House of M onwards.
so yeah picked a character and just kept running in whatever direction caught my attention XD
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u/xFroStY_SaiNT 3d ago
I just started reading comics for the first time ever about 2 weeks ago, basically same boat as you, had no knowledge except I knew it wasn’t like the MCU where you just start at the beginning and work towards the end. Like most others have said, I’d recommend picking a character or two you like and reading that and maybe if you want to do an official order work it in sometimes to change things up. I wanted to read Wolverine comics after playing the new game but don’t like to jump into things in the middle. So I started with X men #1. Then as they encountered other heroes throughout it made me want to expand out instead of reading all of X-men, all of spiderman, all of hulk, etc. So now I mainly read x men but have started following the core 616 order from CMRO. Unlimited has been very good with this for me other than there’s no way to track where you’re at and it’s a lot of jumping around if you do the order. Just know it’s not a binge it in 2 weeks thing if you do it, it’s basically saying I’m going to become a comic guy for the next 20+ years lol.
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u/AttilaTheFun818 4d ago
If you use CMRO it works pretty well. There will be gaps, the entire back catalogue isn’t there, but it has quite a lot. I can’t guess as to percentage, but the vast majority of non licensed or mature issues are there.
Time will tell how convenient it is with the new app
I’m doing much like what you describe. I caution it’s not the way for the vast majority. You’re talking tens of thousands of comics. Some of them are pretty bad. Being decades old quite a lot is dated to our eyes now.
I did find true chronological wasn’t the most enjoyable way. I started that way but ended up finding using CMRO to be more enjoyable.
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u/TuphlosR 4d ago
Didn't know about the CMRO, had to look it up. But I guess that that will be the way to go for me aswel.
This helped me a ton! Cheers mate!
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u/maltliquorjetski 4d ago
I’m reading through every single x-title from the beginning right now, for reasons that now escape me, and I gotta say sometimes I feel trapped in storylines and time period that are tiring (the 90’s) That’s kind of the point I suppose, I’ve read most of the “good runs” and want see what I missed, and a some of it is dire. But on the other hand I had never read Excalibur before, and man that book rules. So I’d say read a good briefish run may be your best best, like other posters have told you.
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u/MrDrWatson 3d ago
What I've been doing is to go to the Search/Issues then in the filter go to the very beginning and choose the first month and download the books I would like to read. After I read those, go to the next month and download another batch of comics I want to read. I'm currently in the year 1987 and started doing this around 2016...so it will take a long time to read them all ( and I'm skipping Dr. Strange, Iron fist and Luke Cage, I initially skipped Fantastic Four but started reading their comics from 85 or a bit earlier onwards). Main thing is just to have fun, don't force it. If you see a nice cover that catches your eye, read it. Welcome to a all new world.
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u/thewomancallednova 3d ago
Reading your addition, that's a super understandable reason for wanting to read comics! I would recommend looking up your favorite characters from the game, googling for their most iconic stories and then reading that. For example you will get a much better feel for Daredevil by reading Frank Miller's run from the 80s than reading all the goofy 60s stuff. Ultimately the Miller run defined Daredevil far more than what came before, and it's like that for a lot of older character.
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u/TuphlosR 3d ago
Great advice! Im trying to use AI and Google to come up with a reading plan starting with ultimate spiderman (2000) and perhaps go back sometime later.
The thing that surprised me was that there are multiversus. I’d rather read the main continuity Spider-Man than an alternate universe version. I want to follow the original Marvel timeline and see how Spider-Man fits into the wider Marvel universe.
But on the otherhand I believe that although I love reading, I'm not thrilled about reading something with the illustrations of 1962.
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u/Educational-Oil-1497 4d ago
I tried reading the chronological order once, and let me tell you it’s an absolute slog. Nothing like the MCU, just a warning for you.
Unlimited isn’t the greatest for tracking it either, but the newer app may have features that benefit something like that. We’re yet to see though.
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u/boxsterguy 4d ago
I absolutely would not recommend reading all 616 from the beginning, but there are larger reads you can do if that's what you want. All off 1610 Ultimate universe, for example. Or the ~15 years of Claremont X-Men.
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u/Jemima_puddledook678 4d ago
This app is great, it has the vast majority of comics marvel has published, with the exceptions of 18+ comics (which will seemingly be changing with the new app), and a handful of issues of more obscure comics from around the 80s. For example, every issue of amazing Spider-man up until the one 3 months ago is on there, but for a more obscure series I’m reading, Marvel team-up, only about 110 of the 150 issues are there.
I would like to strongly recommend you forget about reading every comic in order though. They’re designed for you to be able to jump in at a more recent point, and not read every appearance of a character. I’m currently reading every Spider-man comic, and even as somebody who reads a huge number of comics that’s going to take quite a few months. It just isn’t remotely feasible to read everything, especially when you won’t enjoy chunks of it. You’ll start with the 60s stuff, realise that 60s comics were insanely wordy and not as enjoyable for the average reader today, and probably get bored and/or burnt out before you really start enjoying yourself.
Instead, find a character or group you’ve enjoyed in the MCU, and find a recent comic run for that character, or ask in a subreddit like this for recommendations for that character.
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u/Responsible_Quote_24 1d ago
I couldn't get into the 60s or early 70s stuff so I hit up cmro and like someone before me said. Used the core chronology started late 70s early 80s. I then just used that with main characters. Iron man Spiderman cap. Hulk avengers of etc. Then I could branch out with side ones I like. Like moon knight.
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u/TuphlosR 1d ago
This might be subjective but how good is the 60s en 70s stuff in your view?
This week I was doubting just to start at the year 2000ish.
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u/The_Monster_Goose 1d ago
60s and 70s can be pretty boring for most of marvel. Like the guy above said, 80s for me is really where they start to get good. Claremont’s x men was probably the biggest run for marvel at that time. Even that is hard for some people (can be very wordy. Also, reading comics in order is kinda hard. I would recommend getting some reading guides online for good jumping on points to get to know whatever characters you’re interested in. Marvel unlimited even has some built in reading guides for longer sagas/events.
Something else to note is that marvel unlimited is going away soon and they’re moving to a new app, but your login/library/saved comics will be transferred over if you wanted to get started sooner than that. You’ll just have to make a new subscription when the price increases on the new service and will get a refund for your unlimited subscription.
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u/RaymundStark 4d ago
As many people have pointed out, the main comics continuity is extremely difficult to navigate. I worked with comicbookherald.com and comicbookreadingorders.com to include their guides into an app that makes them interactive.
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u/TuphlosR 4d ago
This all would still be relevant with the new WebToonz app I presume ?
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u/RaymundStark 4d ago
The guides will always be relevant, though I'll probably need to fix all of the links once they start migrating things to a new site. I will be contacting support to see if I can get more insight on this.
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u/TuphlosR 4d ago
Bless you and ( comicbookherald / comicbookreadingorder ) for all the hard work!
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u/RaymundStark 4d ago
Thanks! I'm a passionate reader and this app has become a really fun hobby that I intend on supporting for as long as I can.
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u/SESDawnofVictory 4d ago
Unlimited is pretty trash if you ask me, trying to find specific comics is a fckng drag. I'm glad it's going away, but I've never used webcomics, and it annoys me that I had just paid for a year, but luckily I'll get the refund.
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u/Popular_Material_409 4d ago
You do NOT want to that with the comics. At least, if you mean to read every Marvel comic published. If you wanted to read all 1,000 issues of Amazing Spider-Man, that’s still a tall order but much more doable.
Anyway, I think your best bet is to just wait until the new site goes live and use that.