While the MCU is filled with great intrigue and superhero epics, the franchise exposes only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Marvel Comics has to offer in the way of their greater landscape. Countless fans of the movies originate from the comics, however, a substantial number transitioned the other way around, having the films pique the interest in where the films derived from.
Now Marvel Comics is a lot more fantastical as opposed to the "grounded" nature of the MCU, nevertheless, they are just as, if not more, grandiose than what the films have displayed. These 10 titles will help you expand your understanding of what the Marvel Multiverse consists of.
10 Avengers Disassembled (Brian Micheal Bendis)
If one fundamental comic served as the foundation for Marvel storytelling over the past two decades, Avengers Disassembled would be the root of many stories & crossovers that have been conceived since the mid-late 2000s. Released in 2004, Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, has a psychotic break upon learning her "children" were in fact aberrations, born from the soul fragments of the demon lord Mephisto.
Manifesting disaster after disaster, she manipulates reality to such an extent that a Kree Armada arrives arbitrarily and Tony Stark appears obscenely drunk in the middle of his UN speech. These massive catastrophic events all culminated in the Avengers, either through death or resignation, ultimately dissolving, laying the seeds for stories such as House of M, Civil War, and their presiding stories.
9 Civil War
The fracturing of the superhero community in Civil War set forth a whole new era and dynamic in the way Marvel told their stories, having this massive event be the premise behind some of their greatest stories and concepts.
Pitting the ideologies of freedom and security against one another, Iron Man and Captain America engage in a cat-and-mouse game seeing Tony Stark, who at the time became Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, fight for pro-registration while Captain America and his underground band of heroes believed the Superhuman Registration Act to be a government infringement on civil liberties. Released in 2006, this crossover laid the seeds for initiatives such as Dark Reign and the Heroic Age, which saw the villains rise to prominence & their undoubted fall when the heroes returned to reclaim their mantles.
8 House of M (Brian Micheal Bendis)
If the X-Men is a franchise that you find yourself looking to gain more knowledge in, Jonathan Hickman recently commenced a brand new run with House, Powers, and Dawn of X, introducing new concepts and themes to the massive mythos. However, if you're looking for a certain bedrock on where you should begin, at least in terms of what the X-Men were doing leading up to Jonathan Hickman's run, the place to start is House of M.
Following Wanda Maximoff's psychotic break, her unchecked magical powers had to be monitored, forcing her father, Magneto, to intervene and take her to the island nation of Genosha where she would receive treatment for her shattered mind. While on Genosha, Wanda's brother, Pietro coerced her into manipulating reality to create a world where mutants were the dominant species and humankind was hated.
7 Spider-Man Big Time (Dan Slott)
Surely diving into Spider-Man would be a given considering he is one of the most prominent characters Marvel has to offer, however having an extensive tenure in ongoing storytelling dating back to the 60s definitely boggles the mind in where to even begin. Fret not, following the events of the highly polarized One More Day and Brand New Day which saw Peter sacrifice his marriage to Mary Jane and the aftermath thereof, Big Time serves as a great stepping off point to get readers on one of the newest trends of Spider-Man.
Recruited to Horizon Labs, a think-tank committed to pure, unfiltered invention and innovation, he begins to "hit the big time" in terms of recognition amongst his peers and idols, leading the struggling character trope to ween off of Peter and having his finances and relationships begin to take a turn for the better.
6 Original Sin (Jonathan Hickman)
Original Sin saw the chronicler of the Marvel Universe, Uatu the Watcher, murdered in cold blood in an attempt to obtain the secrets his eyes held. Serving as a story to implement retcons to a handful of characters, Nick Fury and the Avengers investigate the murder only to find the current, and past Nick Fury's, are all life-model decoys, while the real Nick Fury, using the Infinity Formula prolonged his aging to serve as The Man on the Wall. This operative was highly covert, fending off alien and interdimensional threats the heroes of the earth were too morally righteous to combat.
However, with the formula now drained from his body, Nick Fury needed someone to replace him. Murdering Uatu, Nick Fury set up a faux investigation to test his candidates which resulted in the secrets of heroes being revealed, Bucky Barnes claiming the role of Man on the Wall, and Nick Fury becoming the new Watcher dubbed The Unseen.
5 Thor/Unworthy Thor (Jason Aaron)
What is the God of Thunder without his hammer? Is he an unworthy shadow of his former self? A misguided warrior doubtful of his role amongst the godly pantheon? Or is he a destined king meant to discover what it truly means to persevere against all odds? Jason Aaron test these theories when he strips Odinson of his worthiness and bestows the mantle to Jane Foster, becoming the Goddess of Thunder.
Bringing the co-star to such prominence not only opened the door for Odinsons' journey of tribulations to be built, expanded, and thoroughly fleshed out, but it also introduced a female Thor, demonstrating "Thor" is as much a mantle as Captain America, Iron Man, or Spider-Man.
4 Infinity (Jonathan Hickman)
Though all of Jonathan Hickman's works more or less feed into each other, meaning you could read strictly his title runs and they all loosely flow into a singular story, Infinity is the beginning of what many consider to be some of his greatest commissions in storytelling, having the incursion-arc begin with the Avengers leaving earth to investigate and combat the Builders, an ancient & nigh-omnipotent alien race hellbent on destroying earths.
Fortunately for Thanos and his Black Order, the earth is ripe for the picking with the planet being utterly defenseless due to the X-Men and Inhumans being internally handicapped. Razing the planet, Thanos' mission is not as mindlessly barbaric as one would believe, in fact, it is a tactile, albeit wildly aggressive, strike to locate the Inhuman son of Thanos, Thane.
3 The Ultimates (Al Ewing)
Perhaps you need an elaboration on how the Marvel Universe is structured and operated following its soft reboot in 2015. Who is the new Living Tribunal? What are the celestials? How did the Marvel Multiverse get to its current position? Al Ewing enlightens us with these answers in his Ultimates run, having an overpowered team consisting of Black, Panther, Captain Marvel, Blue Marvel, Spectrum, & America Chavez venture throughout the multiverse to preemptively subdue threats to Earth.
Introducing new cosmic entities, revamping existing ones, and expanding the entirety of the cosmic hierarchy, the cosmic side of Marvel is filled with intrigue and insanely powerful characters. If that's where your interest lies, seeing characters face off against grandiose displays of powers, then the Ultimates will surely be a favorite!
2 Avengers/New Avengers (Jonathan Hickman)
Telling a parallel story, Jonathan Hickman's work with Avengers/New Avengers is nothing short of spectacular, his concept of the Illuminati facing the conundrum of a collapsing multiverse brought forth excellent character development and forced the clandestine group of heroes to contend with the inevitable all while being trailed by Captain America and his Mighty Avengers.
Like dominoes ricocheting into each other, the multiverse has suddenly begun collapsing in on itself, and only by destroying incursing earths do the heroes stand a chance in overcoming such unbeatable odds. Challenging the morality of the superhuman community, the Time Run's Out arc saw former Avengers break away from Captain America in light of learning why the Illuminati were partaking in playing, judge, jury, and executioner with billions of lives.
1 2015 Secret Wars (Jonathan Hickman)
Debatably one of the greatest crescendos in comic book runs, Jonathan Hickman's 2015 Secret Wars would see the multiverse's end come to fruition and in its place, a hodgepodge plane of existence consisting of shattered remnants of universes called Battleworld would be accumulated. With the help of Molecule Man, Doom steals the power of the Beyonders, essentially adult iterations of the Beyonder from Secret Wars II, & salvages the shattered multiverse by merging it all together and crowning himself God King Doom.
However, as any Doctor Doom story has shown, his arrogance gets the better of him and leads to his eventual defeat. Nevertheless, a police force consisting of Thors, an armada of World Breaker Hulks lead by Maestro, and an Infinity Gauntlet powered Black Panther leading the dead, it's easy to see this story is one part AMAZING story telling, another massive fan-service that served justly.