Happy anniversary to this blog. On April 6, 2019, I started a project I had meant to do for many, many years and began a read-through of the Marvel Universe. I started this blog in case anybody wanted to follow along.
At least a few people seem to want to. I can usually guarantee about 50 readers per day, and often get more than 100. I thank you all for reading along.
My most faithful reader is my mother, who also helps me correct my inevitable typos. She’d read some of this era of Fantastic Four comics in her youth, specifically the issues involving the Sub-Mariner.
Many thanks as well to the maintainers and contributors of all the sites listed on my Resources page. Those sites serve as a guide for this journey.
In a year, I managed to get through 116 entries in the Marvel Universe, covering 2 years worth of stories. We started in August 1961 and are currently reading comics from September 1963. I recommend checking out my listing of the best we’ve read (in my humble opinion).
Along the way, we’ve met some colorful characters:
- Fantastic Four: Mr. Fantastic, Thing, Invisible Girl and Human Torch
- Dr. Henry Pym, who became Ant-Man, and now goes by Giant-Man
- Hulk
- Spider-Man
- Thor
- Iron Man
- Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes
- Wasp
- Dr. Strange
- The X-Men: Professor X, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Beast, and Angel
The Golden Age character Sub-Mariner has returned as a frequent guest star in Fantastic Four. Spinning out of the pages of Fantastic Four, Human Torch got his own solo adventures. Five of our heroes have teamed up to form the Avengers. Thor shares the spotlight with his fellow Norse gods in Tales of Asgard. The next breakout character to get solo adventures will be the Watcher, introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four.
I have made some other posts as well, outside of those main 116 posts. I’ve included some supplementary reading of older and newer comics of relevance, my PRELUDE and POSTLUDE posts, 44 in total. Around Christmastime, the Classics Comics Forum celebrated their traditional 12 Days of Christmas and I used this space to follow along. I also celebrated the new decade by reflecting on the top comics of the decade and the top science fiction films.
If I can keep up this pace, it will take me about a decade to get through a decade’s worth of reading. I’d prefer to actually go a little bit faster. Ideally, this blog would eventually cover 30 years of comics. But at my current rate, that would take 50 years of my time, and it’s not clear to me I will live that long. Not unless I cut back on the Coca-Cola and fast food.
But I’ll worry about the next 50 years later. I started this blog uncertain if I could maintain for one year. I have. Yay. Let’s push for two years and then see where we are then.
Thank you again, everybody! Here’s to another year of Marvel reading.
Keep it up, Chris! Really enjoy reading along with you!
Thanks, Pat!