Hey, so that Phase Three announcement, right? Crazy! The Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown leaps and bounds since it began in Iron Man, and now it's this crazy awesome amazing thing that DC Entertainment is totally jealous of you guys. So, in the spirit of celebrating the roots of this massive corporate/creative achievement, and to help some folks if they wanna learn more about all these crazy movie characters suddenly taking over literally all their time and money, here's a guide to the original comics that most directly inspired the MCU movies - organized by their various collected forms in book volumes rather than issue number for easy purchasing at your local book or comics store! Now, I'm only covering the MCU movies, ie. the movies produced by Marvel Studios and in continuity with each other, so not covering the poor superhero souls left behind at other studios. Also I'm totally counting Ang Lee's Hulk as an MCU movie even though it totally doesn't really count, because the script and production for Incredible Hulk began as the sequel to Hulk and it's story still shows traces of that development even though it turned into a quasi-reboot while still maintaining the sequel format. Okay? Okay?
(also I've included links to the pages for these books on the Chapters/Indigo website, but occasionally these have incorrect synopsis or cover images displayed, however thanks to the wonder of ISBNs, you can rest assured the links are to the correct volumes referenced)
EXCELSIOR!
PHASE ONE:
HULK (2004) -
So, Ang Lee's Hulk is crazy and a weird attempt at a huge multimillion dollar comic book art movie blockbuster. It's trying to be all things to all people and just ends up a muddled mess. It's also got a weirdly ADD editing style that sometimes works and sometimes is insanely distracting. The cast is good, however, and Lee tried to bring in elements of psychology to the character as well. The movie's plot isn't based on any of the comics in particular, and it's depiction of the origin veers wildly from the comics origin as well (mainly because the comics origin is ridiculous), but I will recommend two books for Hulk fans connected to this movie, however remotely:
- Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Volume 1 - This volume collects the complete six-issue run of the originalThe Incredible Hulk series
by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, before it was cancelled. Yes, the original
Hulk was a commercial failure, only to become a cult classic later and
be revived. This volume contains the classic origin, introducing Bruce
Banner, Betty Ross, General Ross, Glenn Talbot, and Rick Jones. What's
amazing about the original series is how weird it is - how and why
Banner changes into Hulk is changed almost every issue, along with the
format and genre of the series. Lee and Kirby knew they had a good idea
with Hulk, they just didn't know how to sustain him in his own book, so
after this Hulk became a guest player in other series for a while. Sound
familiar? Outside of the origin, the comics here have nothing to do
with Lee's Hulk, but in movies and in comics they're both the place to
start, regardless of how weird they are.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/marvel-masterworks-the-incredible-hulk/9780785137146-item.html - The Incredible Hulk: Crossroads - This volume, plotwise, has very little to do with Lee's film either, but thematically they
are joined at the hip. Because this volume collects the final issues of
the legendary run of writer Bill Mantlo (creator of Rocket Raccoon) and
artist Sal Buscema on Hulk. And in these issues Mantlo takes the
Hulk into some psychological territory by establishing for the first
time that Bruce Banner was abused as a child by his father, which is a
major element in Lee's film. This established that the Hulk was a
reflection of Banner's own tortured psyche, and not just a biological
response, an idea that definitive Hulk writer Peter David would later
run with in his epic run sometime later.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/incredible-hulk-crossroads/9780785184485-item.html
The first Iron Man movie established something of a trend for the MCU in terms of not so much adapting existing storylines wholesale, but mixing and matching what elements they wanted from prominent runs and stories. The first Iron Man not only adapts his origin from the comics, favouring the updated version of the origin from Extremis over the original Vietnam version, but also covers his battles with the Iron Monger as well as his coming out as a superhero, and his friendship with James Rhodes. Two books best suit the interest of fans of the first Iron Man movie:
- Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man Volume 1
- Most of the stories in this volume are bizzare Silver Age nonsense,
but the origin by Stan Lee and Don Heck still forms the core of the
character and his world, and these early tales give you Iron Man's
technological evolution from the big bulky grey suit to the classic red
and gold. The stories are mostly short and to the point, as Iron Man was
merely a feature in Tales of Suspense at this time and had yet to
warrant his own series. Also there's the first appearances of Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and even the Mandarin. The real one.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/marvel-masterworks-the-invincible-iron/9780785145677-item.html - Iron Man: Iron Monger
- This collection brings you the climactic finale of Denny O'Neil's run
on Iron Man, with superb art by Mark Bright. Basically, Obadiah Stane
has taken over Stark Industries, perfected his own armor, and ruined
Tony Stark's life - elements that should sound familiar to movie fans.
Now they battle to the ultimate finish in the series' 200th issue. It's
pretty fucking awesome.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/iron-man-iron-monger/9780785142607-item.html
The second Hulk movie was a soft reboot, picking up from where the first left off with a new cast. Most of the inspiration for the film's tone was from the classic 1970s Hulk TV show, although many characters from the comics were included. Emil Blonsky became the Abomination, and they set up Doc Samson and The Leader, although I doubt we'll ever see those threads picked up because it now seems unlikely that Marvel will revist the Hulk's solo series. The movie took some inspiration from a few different comics series, here's what I'd recommend for fans:
- Hulk: Gray - Part of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's "Colours" trilogy of graphic novels, which re-examined the early days of Marvel. Hulk: Gray brings
us a retelling of the origin, but focused on Hulk's relationship to
Betty Ross. Several scenes from the graphic novel were re-created in the
film.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/hulk-gray/9780785113461-item.html - Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Volume 3 - A collection covering the years after Jack Kirby stopped drawing Hulk and the character transitioned from a feature in Tales to Astonish
and into his second solo series, these tales by Stan Lee and a who's
who of late 60s Marvel talent are notable in this context for featuring
the first appearance of the Abomination.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/marvel-masterworks-the-incredible-hulk/9780785167624-item.html - The Rampaging Hulk Volume 2 - The Rampaging Hulk, later retitled to just The Hulk!,
was a large size black and white comics magazine specifically designed
to cash in on the success of the seventies television show, and thus ape
it's style. Especially in it's second half, collected in this volume,
the comic focused on isolated human interest stories with a minimum of
involvement from the rest of the Marvel universe, capturing the TV
series tone that the 2008 movie was also trying to capture.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/essential-rampaging-hulk-volume-2/9780785142553-item.html
- Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man Volume 2
- This is another collection of old school Stan Lee and Don Heck Iron
Man stories, but I'm including it because it has the first appearances
of Anton Vanko (the Crimson Dynamo) and Natasha Romanova (the Black
Widow), both of whom feature in the movie. This volume also has the
first appearance of Hawkeye, and some more awesome Mandarin stories. Too
bad the Mandarin never appeared in an Iron Man film.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/marvel-masterworks-the-invincible-iron/9780785159070-item.html - Iron Man by Michelinie, Layton and Romita Jr. Omnibus
- So probably among the best Iron Man comics of all time are those by
David Michelinie and Bob Layton, and holy shit here's their entire first
run on the character collected in one massive tome! Awesome! Here we
have appearances by Whiplash, Justin Hammer, and the first appearance of
James Rhodes. These stories developed Tony Stark into one of Marvel's
best characters, and see Hammer's attempts to destroy Tony's life and
business, as well as the government's first attempt to buy out Tony and
his inventions after he stops building weapons. This volume also
includes the legendary "Demon in a Bottle" storyline which dealt with
Tony's alcoholism and forever defined the character -- a storyline that
will never be in the movies because Disney decreed it so.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/iron-man-by-michelinie-layton/9780785167129-item.html - Iron Man: Armor Wars -
None of the Iron Man films have truly adapted the character's best
storyline, which is "Armor Wars" from Michelinie and Layton's second run
on the character. Nonetheless, the basic brush strokes of the story -
that of Justin Hammer's war against Stark, and Stark's neverending
battle to ensure his technology doesn't fall into the wrong hands - form
the core of the second movie's story and themes.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/iron-man-armor-wars/9780785125068-item.html - Iron Man: War Machine - And for all the Rhodey fans out there, here's the first appearance of War Machine!
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/iron-man-war-machine/9780785131328-item.html
- The Mighty Thor Omnibus Volume 1 - This massive tome collects the first third, only the first third, of
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original run on Thor. Nonetheless, it is
sufficient to introduce us to Thor, Donald Blake (his unused secret
identity), Jane Foster, Asgard, the Frost Giants, Odin, Sif, the
Warriors Three, the Destroyer, Heimdall, the Bifrost, and of course that
fucker Loki. These are fucking great comics, and yet they don't even
scratch the surface of what Kirby would eventually achieve with the
character.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/the-mighty-thor-volume-1/9780785149736-item.html
- The Golden Age Captain America Omnibus Volume 1
- This volume collects the entire original run on Captain America by
his creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, with some later stories by Stan
Lee and Al Avison. These were comics about World War II, during World
War II, and it shows! They are very patriotic and propagandistic, with
tons of Nazi fighting and racial stereotypes, but they're also a ton of
fun and have loads of creative energy. Simon and Kirby would leave Cap
after only ten issues, but the character would continue on throughout
the entire war as Timely Comics' most popular character. In this volume
we first meet Cap, Bucky, the Red Skull, and supertough secret agent
Betsy Ross, retconned in later Marvel Comics into Peggy Carter.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/golden-age-captain-america-omnibus/9780785168072-item.html - Captain America Omnibus Volume 1
- This book covers Cap's modern age revival and integration into the
rest of the Marvel Universe under the creative auspices of Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby in the 1960s. Although set outside of Cap's WWII setting from
the first movie, these stories not only modernized the character, they
also contain many retroactive flashbacks, as well as featuring the
return of the Red Skull and introducing for the first time the Cosmic
Cube, an artifact of great power known in the movie as the Tesseract.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/captain-america-omnibus-volume-1/9780785150787-item.html
- Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Volume 1 -
It's the origin of the team, their coming together to defeat Loki, the
awakening of Captain America in the modern world, and other cool early
stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Hulk sure doesn't stick around long,
does he?
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/marvel-masterworks-the-avengers-volume/9780785137061-item.html - The Ultimates
- This modernized alternate take on the Avengers gave a lot of
inspiration to the modernized portrayal of the team in the MCU, even if
it veers a little too far into an OTT attempt to be "mature" at times.
Here we got Cap waking up, the team coming together, a lot of
unnecessary sex and violence, Black Widow and Hawkeye coming in, a black
Sam Jackson looking Nick Fury, and a Chitauri invasion.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/ultimates-volume-1/9780785110828-item.html
IRON MAN 3 (2013) -
Iron Man 3 continued to take bits and pieces from various Iron Man runs that suited it, with elements from the works of Michelinie/Layton, John Byrne, Joe Quesada, Warren Ellis and Adi Granov, and others. That said, while it leans more heavily on the comics in some areas, it greatly diverges in others.
- Iron Man: Extremis - Of course, the biggest inspiration on Iron Man 3 is Extremis,
and indeed Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's storyline was a massive
influence on the entire Iron Man trilogy in terms of the depiction of
the character of Tony Stark and the visual depiction of Iron Man.
However, while the movie uses characters, situations, and basic premises
from the arc, it diverges heavily in terms of plot.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/iron-man-extremis/9780785183785-item.html - Iron Man: Armor Wars II
- The sequel to Armor Wars forms the first arc in John Byrne's run on
Iron Man with artist John Romita Jr. The storyline isn't used much at
all in the movie, but the central idea of remote control Iron Man suits
sure as hell is. The next arc of John Byrne's run would be a wicked
sweet Mandarin storyline that was totally badass. Too bad Marvel never
used the Mandarin in any of its Iron Man movies.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/iron-man-armor-wars-ii/9780785145578-item.html
- Thor Visionaries: Walt Simonson Volumes 1 & 2
- But Ben, why not just recommend the Walt Simsonson Thor Omnibus?
Well, I'll tell you reader: for one thing, I'm pretty sure the third
Thor movie will be leaning heavily on the second half of Simsonson's
epic run, so I'm saving that recommendation for later, and for another
thing, that Omnibus was recoloured with modern style colouring over
Simonson's 1980s pencils and I hate it with a fiery passion. These first
two trade paperback collections awkwardly split the first Malekith
story arc between the two of them, but they also have the original
colours, and therefore get my recommendation since these comics are
fucking awesome.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/thor-visionaries-walter-simonson-volume/9780785131892-item.html
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/thor-visionaries-walter-simonson-volume/9780785131908-item.html
The second Captain America flick continued Marvel's Phase Two trend of taking more direct inspiration from specific comic book storylines, although it still mixed and matched elements in order to deliver a storyline that worked for the burgeoning movie universe's needs, instead of slavishly following the comics versions.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Holyshit, who could've guessed? While the plot of this hugely
significant story arc from 2005 differs quite a bit from it's movie
"adaptation", the basic throughline in terms of the character of the
Winter Soldier and his revelations are more or less the same. It's a
pretty great storyline and it lead to a pretty great movie.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/captain-america-winter-soldier-ultimate/9780785143413-item.html - Captain America and the Falcon: The Secret Empire
- Mike Friedrich and Steve Engelhart bring us this classic 1970s tale
of conspiracy and paranoia. While again the plot is very different from
the Winter Soldier film, the movie took its tone of a government out to
get Cap and the sudden lack of anyone to trust from this well-regarded
arc. Also, it's got Falcon in it! And he's pretty cool.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/captain-america-and-the-falcon/9780785118367-item.html
Not gonna lie, I'd never even heard of these assholes before they got their own movie. Made up of a bunch of different characters who had already existed in the cosmic Marvel universe, they were forged into a team by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning in the aftermath of the "Annihilation: Conquest" event, and quickly deemed awesome enough to make a movie about I guess.
- Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett and Lanning: The Complete Collection -
Real talk, these guys have not been around as a team that long. So a
lot of the Guardians comics out there now have been created after
production on the movie began. So really what I can recommend for comics
that inspired the movie is the original twenty-five issue run by Abnett
and Lanning that inspired the movie. If you wanna go back in time to
read the "Annihilation" event that the team spun off from, or even the
older comics that the individual members all debuted in, well, you could
do that too I suppose.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/guardians-of-the-galaxy-by/9780785190646-item.html
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/guardians-of-the-galaxy-by/9780785190639-item.html
Granted, Avengers 2 isn't out yet, so it's hard to say with certainty what I'd recommend. But what we do know for certain is that Ultron, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and the Vision are involved, and that while it shares a title with the recent "Age of Ultron" storyline, it doesn't actually share plot with it. So here's what I'd recommend you read to get yourself caught up based on what we do know:
- Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Volume 2
- In this volume, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch
join the team while Thor and Iron Man peace out. Because RDJ and Chris
Hemsworth are expensive.
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/marvel-masterworks-the-avengers-volume/9780785137085-item.html - Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Volume 6
- Several issues later, Ultron is built, becomes an big time bad guy,
and then the Vision shows up. It's just a robot battle royale over here!
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/marvel-masterworks-the-avengers-volume/9780785188520-item.html
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