Top Ten: Marvel Knowledge Holes

[tarotgal]

Despite the fact that Batman is my favorite superhero, I’m definitely a Marvel girl. Marvel characters are my kind of people. Marvel stories are ones I can relate to. Marvel’s world is my world.

However, I get my Marvel where I can– various movies, comics and graphic novels I come across at used book sales or on deep discount at comic book stores, various cartoon TV show versions, various graphic novels I find at the library. Because of this, I don’t have a very good mental picture of the various Marvel universes or their timelines. Everything is all mixed up in my brain.

I know just enough to know that I don’t know very much. I have big gaps in my knowledge that sometimes cause me “oohhhh!” light bulb moments of realization when those gaps get filled in… and sometimes cause me massive amounts of confusion and guilt. I figured this might be a great source of laughter for those of you with more knowledge than me (which is practically everyone) and a way for me to come clean. Feel free to try to explain things to me. But, more helpful, would be a list of comics/episodes that would let me properly fill in the gaps. I’ve tried Wikis and they leave me with more questions than answers.

 

Top Ten Giant Holes in My Marvel Knowledge

1. Deadpool likes tacos?- All I know is that the guy behind me in line at Free Comic Book Day cracked the heck up at the Deadpool tacos t-shirt hanging on the wall. His four-year-old son seemed as clueless as I felt about this mysterious thing, so I figure it was not a good thing to ask about
2. Civil War- The only thing I know is that in some universe and for some reason, a civil war happened for some reason. So, yeah, I know nothing.
3. Dr. Strange- This guy keeps popping up in things I watch/read and then going away. I don’t have a good sense of him, except that he’s awesome with magic and has a cool house. I’d like to know him better.
4. Avengers are actually the Ultimates- I’m so confused by the Ultimates existing. Are they just another grouping of the Avengers but don’t want to call themselves the Avengers? Or is it a completely alternate universe/timeline?
5. Kree-Skrull War - I know the Kree. I know the Skrull. I have no idea why they’re fighting or how any of my superheroes are involved.
6. Jimmy Hudson- Wait, what? How does Wolverine have a son who has his mutant abilities and the same something unnatural done to Wolverine PLUS other features? Also, when does he even have a son? And with who? I know nothing!
7. The Bad Things That Happen Before Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol. 1: The World According to Peter Parker- Bad things happened. Tons of character I love apparently died? Teams broke up? Reed is… I have no idea where. Johnny’s in shock. Bobby’s out of the X-Men. I just accept this and moved through with this starting point but have no clue how to figure out what comics I need to read to figure out what the bad things were exactly and why they happened
8. The Infinity Gauntlet- I know it’s a thing. I know there was a war (gee, I apparently miss all Marvel wars… battles/wars are clearly not my Marvel forte). I know it involves stones. That’s all I’ve got
9. Characters named Marvel- The names bother me a little (sorry, Stan) so I never went exploring to find out much about them. I’ve met Capptain Marvel/Mar-Vell a few times in print/in various episodes. And then there’s Marvel Girl who is actually Jean Grey? I have a hard time keeping timelines and characters straight before they go renaming themselves all over the place and naming themselves after the brand
10. Frog Thor- Seriously, I love that this is a thing and that he is part of something called the Pet Avengers, but the only exposure I’ve had to Frog Thor was in an episode of Ultimate Spider-Man when Loki turns his brother into a Frog. Which, I take it, is different from Throg. And I have run into ads for the Pet Avengers in comics I’ve read lately.

This isn’t exactly a knowledge gap, but I seriously don’t understand why no one suspected a guy named Dr. Doom was going to turn out to be evil. There are some darn smart Marvel superheros out there. How did no one see this coming? This hasn’t been addressed to my satisfaction in anything I’ve read/watched.

This post was originally posted on The Fangirl Project: http://thefangirlproject.com/?p=886

Comments

[wig-powder.livejournal.com]

I can help a little; can't offer specific issues, though.

2. Honestly, I'd avoid this whole plotline if possible. Civil War was TERRIBLE. I went in to it at least neutral about most of the characters; I came out of it hating Iron Man.

Basically, the plot of Civil War is as follows; After an unfortunate accident that killed children, the government puts a Superhero Registration Act into effect, which would make all superheroes have to reveal their identities (I don't remember if it was to the general public at large or just to the government) and work for the government. Some people (like Iron Man and Reed Richards) are behind it, and others (most notably Captain America) are appalled and refuse to be part of it, leading to a sort of underground resistance.

The most notable incident was that Spider-Man actually publicly unmasked, which led to more trouble than it was worth, and was responsible for one of the most unpopular moves in Marvel history; One More Day.

There were seven official issues, but it was a gigantic event that was referenced in a lot of the comics at the time, so trying to get the whole story might be difficult. And honestly, the point was moot anyway, because after a few years mostly everything went back to normal. So really, I don't know if you missed much.

4. There was (still might be; I got out of the comics habit around the same time as Civil War) a separate Marvel line known as "Ultimate"-verse. The Avengers were known as the "Ultimates" in that verse, and the rest were just "Ultimate Spider-Man," "Ultimate X-Men", "Ultimate Fantastic Four", etc. Generally, the characters were portrayed as much younger, and sometimes they retold classic stories and took them in odd directions (Dr. Doom had goat legs at one point). It's where Black Nick Fury came from, and Marvel Zombies got their start there.

So short answer; The Ultimates are not related to mainstream Avengers, though certain elements do get borrowed from the movies occasionally.

Can't help you with the other points, unfortunately. Hope other people can help you!

[smokeycat-430.livejournal.com]

1. Yeah, Deadpool likes tacos, and chimichangas. As far as I know it's just a running gag. He likes Mexican food, I guess. I have never really followed Deadpool too much but I just picked up a few of the new issues of a storyline that's called Deadpool vs SHIELD. I know there is also a series where Deadpool shows up in classic literature (Moby Dick, Tom Sawyer and the like) that I was thinking about looking into as well.

5. If you want to know about the Kree/Skrull war in an entertaining way I would watch the Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon on Netflix. It's really well made and all the plots for the episodes are taken right from the comics.

8. I do know a bit about the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, though. They reintroduced/relaunched the Infinity story into a series last summer which I read. Basically the Gauntlet is to Marvel what the Deathly Hallows is to Harry Potter. There are, what, like six gems I think and each one gives the owner a power (omnipotence, power over time, unlimited strength and energy, etc). So when you put all the gems together on/in the Gauntlet, you are basically indestructible and god-like.

In the MCU they are starting to incorporate these gems into the movies. The Tesseract (or cosmic cube) is a "gem" and the black material from Thor 2. Since you just saw Thor 2 you probably saw the part where Sif takes the black material to the Collector at then end of the movie. The Collector is going to be in Guardians of the Galaxy (because the actor Benincio Del Toro's name is in the trailer) so they are probably going to have another gem in that movie.

In the comics, the Collector is approached by Thanos (the red guy at the end of the Avengers movie) about the gems. Thanos gets all the gems and puts them on his Gauntlet and then the Avengers (at some point they team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy) fight him and blah blah blah.