Marvel Comics mastered the art of the shared universe years before Marvel Studios made their first film, and that dynamic has not only enriched the films the Studios shingle has been releasing for the last 10 years, but come to a kind of unprecedented fruition in the behemoth that is Avengers: Infinity War.
That story, as has been well documented, is based loosely on Jim Starlin’s The Infinity Gauntlet, a miniseries which saw Thanos the Mad Titan shred heroes throughout the universe on his way to becoming the most powerful being in all of creation when he assembled all of the “Infinity Gems” into a gauntlet that would harness and focus their power for him.
Elements of Infinity, a recent follow up to Infinity Gauntlet which introduced Thanos’s Black Order, also informed the story, as well as odds and ends from a handful of other tales, since there were so many storylines interweaving between the dozens of characters appearing in the movie.
So if you want to know what comics you can read up on to get the same general rush of the Marvel movies, read on…and you might be surprised how much a little more in the way of detail could help you understand what’s next…
Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War are now playing in theaters. Ant-Man and The Wasp is set for release on July 6, 2018. Captain Marvel will follow it on March 6, 2019, with the untitled Avengers 4 set to tie everything about the Marvel Cinematic Universe into a bow on May 3, 2019.
Ironically considering how huge he would loom over the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Jack Kirby was not credited in the first appearance of Iron Man — Tales of Suspense #39, featuring a script by Larry Lieber and Stan Lee and art by Don Heck.
Since Iron Man is as much a standard origin story as any Marvel movie gets, there is a lot of the film that is simply adapted and updated from that first story.
Still, honorable mentions should go to Iron Man #163, in which Dennis O’Neil and Luke McDonnell introduced Obadiah Stane, and Iron Man #200, in which the character first donned the Iron Monger armor and died. That issue was written by O’Neil and pencilled by M.D. Bright, with inks by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey. The Iron Monger showdown in the film’s third act could be seen as a re-envisionining of this story, of course, although frankly the movie is mostly its own animal.
Still, we would be remiss if we did not mention Iron Man #118 (David Michelinie, John Byrne, Bob Layton), the first appearance of Rhodey and Tales of Suspense #45 (Lee, Robert Bernstein, Heck), the first appearance of Pepper.
Since Ang Lee had just tackled the jade giant’s origin story in The Hulk a few years before, The Incredible Hulk did not get the same origin story treatment. It was also not really based on any one storyline from the comics.
So really this one is a template for some of the future installments that would be largely constructed by screenwriters using only the high concept of the character and the setting of the Marvel Universe.
Some things worth noting, though, include the first appearances and origins of The Leader (Tales To Astonish #62, by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and George Bell), and The Abomination (Tales to Astonish #90 by Stan Lee and Gil Kane).
That The Hulk gets a bit of an origin recap allows us to mention his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Paul Reinman. This marks the first mention of Jack Kirby, who played nearly as significant a role to the rise of Marvel Comics as that of Lee, and arguably a bigger role in comics as a whole since he went on to create significant characters for DC after his time at Marvel was over.
Iron Man 2 was, again, a story that felt less directly pulled from the pages of the comics than some others.
The “Demon in a Bottle” storyline, by Bob Layton, David Michelinie, and John Romita Sr., was certainly an influence on the film, even though (much to the fans’ consternation) they never actually dealt with the idea of Tony being an alcoholic. The behaviors he engages in certainly hinted at the story for those in the know, which is enough to include it — especially since prior to the movie it was probably the best-known and most talked-about Iron Man story ever told. That storyline is available in collected editions under the Demon in a Bottle title.
Outside of that, the most important comics to mention are likely the first appearance of Justin Hammer (Iron Man #120 by David Michelinie and Bob Layton), the film’s villain, and some key issues dealing with Black Widow.
Black Widow first appeared in Tales of Suspense #52 (by Stan Lee, Don Rico and Don Heck), but that version — an Iron Man villain — bore little resemblance to the version who would become the final, most popular form of Natasha. Some of her backstory was revealed in The Avengers #29 (Lee, Heck, Frank Giacoia), and she got a visual makeover in The Amazing Spider-Man #86 (Lee, Romita, Jim Mooney).
This movie is of course an origin story more truly than most, so a lot of credit goes to very early issues. We can’t run them all down here, but Journey Into Mystery #83 by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott is Thor’s first appearance and clearly an important one.
Loki first appeared in Journey Into Mystery #85 (Lee, Lieber, Kirby, Dick Ayers), bringing with him much of the complicated backstory that defined him in this and later movies. That issue also gave us the first appearance of Asgard, its people, and much of the backstory that would define the character in the comics and onscreen.
The battle with the Destoyer (a character created by Lee and Kirby in Journey Into Mystery #118) felt suspiciously like the one that took place in the first arc of Dan Jurgens and John Romita, Jr.’s Thor run in the early 2000s, but that could just be us.
Captain America: The First Avenger takes place largely in World War II, so the earliest of stories — and mostly those with little to do with the larger Marvel Universe — shaped most of it.
Captain America Comics #1 by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Al Liederman set the stage for the character, introducing both Steve and Bucky Barnes. Simon and Kirby introduced fans to The Red Skull, Cap’s most persistent villain, in Captain America Comics #7 (inked by Simon).
Later, the world would be introduced to Peggy Carter in Tales of Suspense #75 by Stan Lee, penciller Adam Austin, and inker Gary Michaels.
Cap’s unit, the Howling Commandos, first appeared in the comics in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers.
The Cosmic Cube, which would appear in both this film and in The Avengers, first became the Skull’s big MacGuffin in Tales of Suspense #79 by Lee, Gene Colan, and Jack Abel.
All of the previous movies culminated with Marvel’s The Avengers, in which the heroes of Marvel’s first “phase” of films came together to face off against Loki, who commanded a Chitauri army and was secretly working for an unseen actor later revealed to be Thanos.
The Chitauri were major antagonists in the Ultimate universe, who first appeared in The Ultimates #8 by Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, and Paul Neary. The film was often compared to the Chitauri invasion story from that series.
The Avengers’ first time out together, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers in The Avengers #1, was a face-off with Loki, but it’s worth noting that team was quite a bit different from the one fans saw onscreen: Ant-Man and The Wasp were members, but Captain America had not yet been unfrozen from the ice, Hawkeye did not exist yet, and Black Widow would not become a member for quite a while.
Iron Man 3 featured a kinda/sorta/not really version of The Mandarin, one of Tony’s longest-running villains and Jon Favreau’s originally-planned first villain (he got talked out of it at the time becuase it seemed too fantastical for a first installment, although eventually they grounded him so much that it likely would have worked fine either way).
It also name-dropped a half-dozen villains and supporting characters from the comics, largely in name only, so we won’t pay too much attention to things like the first appearance of Man-Thing’s wife or any of the various villains who were subjected to the Extremis virus.
That said, Extremis itself as a big influence. Aldrich Killian, the Extremis technology, and more came from a story by Warren Ellis (after whom the movie’s President was named) and artist Adi Granov. You can find the whole storyline pretty easily in collected editions.
As for The Mandarin, his comics counterpart is very different from the movie version, but you can read up on him in Tales of Suspense #50 by Stan Lee and Don Heck.
Thor by Walt Simonson volumes 1 and 2 are the collected editions you should read, if you want to find out what they were thinking when they made the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s least-esteemed entry.
Simonson, arguably the most influential creator to work on Thor after Jack Kirby himself, told a story that had a lot of surface-level similarities to the one told in The Dark World, but…well…Simonson’s was good.
Malekith, the film’s villain, first appeared in Simonson’s The Mighty Thor #344.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is, rather unsurprisingly, based on the comics storyline by the same name, by writer Ed Brubaker with artists Steve Epting, Michael Lark, John Paul Leon, and more.
The storyline, which took place in the first few issues of 2004’s Captain America relaunch, was the launch point for a run on Captain America by Brubaker that lasted almost a decade and made him one of the most beloved and best-selling writers ever to tackle the character.
The comics version of the story is a bit different, with more fantastical Marvel Comics elements than the movie has. Still, it hews pretty close to the actually Winter Soldier aspect of it all.
The fall of SHIELD is something that can’t really be tracked to Winter Soldier — but is a pretty regular occurrence in Marvel Comics as a whole. For an organization that has its fingers in every pie, SHIELD can’t quite seem to keep control over their own destiny.
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning had an acclaimed run on Guardians of the Galaxy, something that redefined the concept for a more modern audience, and that was so influential as a source material for the movie that Abnett and Lanning, who no longer work together, reunited to work on a tie-in comic.
The pair’s work together (largely with artist Paul Pelletier) has been collected in a number of collected editions, including an omnibus hardcover that collects the whole thing.
The events of their run play into a number of Marvel’s cosmic events that took place around that time, including the Thanos-centric Annihilation.
Ultron first appeared in The Avengers #54 by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and George Tuska. Of course, in that comic, he was built not by Iron Man but by Hank Pym — but we’ll get to that guy eventually.
The sensibility feels more like Kurt Busiek, George Perez, and Stuart Immonen’s run “Ultron Unlimited” storyline from 2001, though, and that’s a great read if you can find it.
The Vision first appeared in The Avengers #57, also by Thomas, Buscema, and Tuska.
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver debuted in X-Men #4 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Paul Reinman.
Ant-Man (Hank Pym) first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27 by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers. The Wasp first appeared not long after, in Tales to Astonish #44 by Lee, H.E. Huntley, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck.
Scott Lang himself, the Ant-Man in the film, first appeared in The Avengers #181 by David Michelinie, John Byrne, and Gene Day.
Some of the film’s sensibilities come from Robert Kirkman, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, and Cory Walker’s The Irredeemable Ant-Man, which can be found in collected edition.
(There is also the matter of the unproduced Edgar Wright Ant-Man movie script, which likely had strong influences on this, as Wright worked on it with Marvel Studios for a number of years before leaving the project, but that’s not really comics.)
Captain America: Civil War is a loose adaptation of Mark Millar, Steve McNiven, and Dexter Vines’s Marvel Comics mega-event, Civil War.
The story, which shared the same basic high concept as the movie, divided Marvel’s superheroes and set a new status quo for SHIELD, among many other things.
The biggest thing they flirted with, but did not actually adapt, was Spider-Man’s relationship to Tony, which boils down to joining the pro-Registration side for a while, revealing his identity publicly, finding out that was a terrible idea, and joining the resistance.
There are collected editions for both Civil War and a number of Civil War tie-in story arcs from individual comics and tie-in miniseries.
Doctor Strange’s comics are all over the place; as a character who has spent most of his existence on the B-list, he (like Ant-Man and the Guardians) have only a few arcs that really define him as a character.
A major influence on the movie was Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Alvaro Lopez’s Doctor Strange: The Oath miniseries from 2006. The story, which came after years of the character toiling under the radar, was seen as a chance to make him a household name and something that could potentially be adapted as a feature film.
It was not adapted directly, but elements of it — particularly a more modern version of Strange’s relationship with the supernatural and Wong — certainly carry over.
Doctor Strange’s origin, obviously, is also a big part of this movie. That took place in Strange Tales #110 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
And the whole original Ditko run of Doctor Strange stories, with its trippy visuals and sometimes-unlikable protagonist, were used as the template for the film’s bigger picture.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created Ego the Living Planet in Thor #132 and 133 back in the ’60s, which provided some of the backstory for the character…
…but he isn’t a Celestial in the comics. Celestials were created by Kirby in The Eternals #2 about ten years later.
Meanwhile, the battle scene that defeated Ego by attacking his brain directly is a callback to a scene from one of John Byrne’s earliest Fantastic Four stories.
Mantis, created by Steve Engelhart and Don Heck, first appeared in The Avengers #112. She would join the Guardians during the Abnett and Lanning run.
And the Ravagers headed up by Sylvester Stallone are actually the first generation of comics Guardians of the Galaxy, whose stories were written by Jim Valentino in the ’90s.
Spider-Man: Homecoming was influenced a great deal by Brian Michael Bendis’s long run on Ultimate Spider-Man, which you can get in dozens of collected editions.
The final “what the — ?” moment is a riff on a key moment from J. Michael Straczynski’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man, which was ultimately undone in “One More Day” at the end of his run.
The Vulture first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #2, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, although he does not have a ton in common with his feature-film counterpart.
Walter Simonson’s “Ragnarok” storyline is the nominal inspiration for using the Norse mythology for this movie, and shares some of the same DNA as Taika Waitti’s film.
That said, the meat of the story is built around Greg Pak and John Romita, Jr.’s “Planet Hulk” storyline.
Both of the two are available in collected editions.
In comics, Black Panther is a character with a history almost as long as some of Marvel’s other, arguably better-known characters such as the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, and when it comes to the upcoming Black Panther movie, some of that rich history had important influence on the Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
According to executive producer Nate Moore, the works of two specific Black Panther writers helped shape the Ryan Coogler-directed film: Christopher Priest and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
“Ryan and Ta-Nehisi have a friendship, so they’ve spoken,” Moore said during a visit to the film’s set. “Both Ryan and I have spoken to Chris, who’s incredibly smart and obviously, I think did the seminal run on the character, so far. We’ve talked to them. It hasn’t gone as far as consulting, but we always wanted to pick their brains as to what they found interesting about the character and the world. It turned out a lot of what they find interesting is what we also found interesting. We love Reggie’s [Hudlin] run as well, but we didn’t talk to him as much. It was really Chris and Ta-Nehisi’s runs that were really inspirational.”
Priest and Coates’ runs on Black Panther represent stories that brought the character into significant popularity, with many — including Coates — considering Priest’s turn-of-the-millennium work to be the definitive, classic run on Black Panther. Coates, who is currently writing the comics, even told Vulture that Priest moved the character from just a superhero to being a hero who also happens to be a king, and, based on what we’ve seen of T’Challa/Black Panther both in his first appearance in Avengers: Civil War and in various trailers and teasers leading up to Black Panther, that’s exactly how Coogler is presenting the character.
However, Moore explained that while Priest and Coates had influence on Black Panther, much of that blossomed into the look and feel of the movie, elements that are less about the stories and more about the world they are set in.
“I think there were definitely some inspiration points, especially design wise that we got from both Chris and Ta-Nehisi’s run,” Moore said. “Brian Stelfreeze is an amazing artist, and some of his version of Wakanda, and even Wakandan technology is stuff we borrowed pretty liberally from.”
Moore also explained that, even with the comic book inspiration, Coogler and production designer Hannah Beachler brought ideas outside of the publications as well.
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“A lot of their ideas that are outside of publishing we found interesting, because again, one thing we really wanted to explore was real Africa, and real African inspiration, and grounding it in stuff that was terrestrial,” Moore said. “Sometimes comics are beautiful but feel so far removed from what we know as real that they become too heightened. One thing that Hannah, I think, did really well was exploring actual African culture, and actual African design, and infusing it with this cool new future tech to make it something completely new, which we think is really interesting.”
Additional reporting by Nicole Drum.
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