3 Current MARVEL Comics That Newcomers Should Read


With the popularity of Marvel movies in recent years (Winter Soldier, Days Of Future Past and Guardians Of The Galaxy coming out this year alone), more people are interested in checking out the comic books, along with Marvel’s Marvel NOW! and All-New Marvel NOW! initiatives making it easier for the new Marvel reader to begin, but the land of comics can still be scary and treacherous for the new reader, so let me take you by the hand and recommend some of the most enjoyable and most accessible Marvel books coming out right now.

Hawkeye

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A Page from the Eisner winning Hawkeye #11

Over the last couple years, Hawkeye, by Matt Fraction and David Aja, has been one of Marvel’s most surprising hits. The series follows what Clint Barton (AKA Hawkeye) is up to when he’s not Avenger-ing — primarily pissing off the “Tracksuit Mafia” (a gang who’s members all wear tracksuits) and spending time with the colourful cast of characters who live in his building. At this year’s Eisners (the comic book equivalent of the Oscars) Hawkeye raked in two awards: Best Cover Artist (David Aja) and Best Single Issue (for #11, which is told from the perspective of Clint’s dog, and uses little diagrams to show what the dog associates with smells and sounds).

In the Avengers movie, Hawkeye was the least used character, leaving many people wanting to know more about him, and that’s where this book comes in, you get to spend time with this guy, get a feel for who he is, in a way that’s not bogged down by big crossover events and action sequences, where the smaller characters (like Hawkeye) often get lost in the shuffle.

Daredevil

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A page from the first issue of Daredevil

A page from the first issue of Daredevil

Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s first run on Daredevil garnered a lot of buzz, so when it was relaunched a few months ago I had to check it out, and I fell in love. I have never read any Daredevil before, my only real exposure to the character was the director’s cut of the movie (I heard the theatrical cut was pretty poor so I avoided it),  but I still found this book extremely easy to get into. Matt Murdock (the blind lawyer also known as Daredevil) has just moved to a new city, San Francisco. It’s a new start for the character, so it is a great place to jump on.

With the Daredevil Netflix show coming out next year, as well as it being Daredevil‘s 50th anniversary year. it’s the perfect time to jump on and get a feel for who Matt Murdock is, and have a good time reading a great comic.

Rocket Raccoon

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For me, Rocket was the best part of the Guardians Of The Galaxy movie, and in his solo comic, he’s also awesome! Skottie Young writes and draws an immensely fun, quirky tale. The series has only just started (issue 2 came out this week) so there’s not much that I can say, other than if you’re looking for a Guardians fix after the movie, pick this up — it has the same kind of humorous tone as the film (particularly compared to the main Guardians book, which is quite serious) and Rocket Raccoon my favourite of the Guardians related titles.

Note: There’s obviously lots of books that are not on this list — a lot of the All-New Marvel NOW! launches, I’m waiting for the collected editions of, so can’t recommend yet. Furthermore there aren’t any X-Men titles on the list, despite me being a huge X-Men fan because most of them spun out of the continuity-heavy Avengers Vs. X-Men crossover, so aren’t very easy to get into for newcomers.