If ten years ago, at the release of ‘The Avengers’, Marvel fans were told that we were going to see a movie with Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch chasing each other across the multiverse we wouldn’t have believed it. And yet here we are: the different dimensions are entrenched in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and at the same time we’ve barely begun to scratch them.
Luckily, when the last post-credits scene ends and the theater lights come on, it’s time to get closer to the comic shop to see what we’ve missed, all that ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ could not count due to lack of time, expand the adventures of their characters or understand what that motley group that appears in the middle of the film is all about. Yes, that same one.
We are going to see which are the best comics to read after (or before) the movie to continue the adventures or, why not, open new horizons. You can also see the best comics to accompany ‘Moon Knight’, ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, ‘Aquaman’, The Defenders, ‘Joker’, or a guide to ‘Watchmen’ comics ‘.
You can also check the best movies based on comics, essential adaptations, the best superhero series and here we order the Marvel movies and series of 2021 from worst to best.
Review this list carefully, because you still have hours and hours of fun between vignettes. oh! A warning: I will call the character from the comics “Strange”, which is how he has traditionally been called, and not “Strange” as Disney has insisted on calling him in his Spanish film version. Be careful because there may be spoilers. You are warned.
‘Avengers Disassembled’ by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch
In the mid-1980s, in ‘The Vision and the Scarlet Witch’, Steve Englehart scripted the story of the scarlet witch pregnancy thanks to magic: Billy and Thomas were born only to die a couple of years later at the hands of Martin Preston, better known as Master Pandemonium, who was under the orders of Mephisto. Wanda separated from Vision, the memory of her children was erased with the magic of Agatha Harkness and everything seemed to return to normal… Until Bendis decided that it was time to pick up that thread fifteen years later.
‘Avengers Disassembled’ it is Scarlet Witch’s revenge in retaliation for having her memories erased and tampered with. Along the way she will kill several of her fellow Avengers, who will not know how to act before her until the arrival of Doctor Strange. The consequences of ‘Avengers Disunited’ are still noticeable to this day and were the starting gun for ‘The New Avengers’, ‘Young Avengers’, ‘Dynasty of M’ and one of the possible bases for Wanda’s probable solo film Maximoff: ‘The Children’s Crusade’. If everything goes its way, will we see the famous “No more mutants” in adapted film? Hopefully.
‘Secret Wars’, by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic
Do you want to know how far the Marvel multiverse goes? If in the film they give a small appetizer, in the comics it’s where the twenty course dinner is full. Jonathan Hickman paved a three-year path in the ‘Avengers’ and ‘New Avengers’ series in which he presented different universes and how they faced each other. a series of raids that would only leave one alive in the multiverse – its final pages are amazing.
It’s a somewhat overwhelming but gripping read that culminated in ‘Secret Wars’, a series that shared only a name with the original from 1984. In this case, Hickman brought together 41 universes after the collision of 616 with 1610 (the normal with the Ultimate, come on) putting Marvel Zombies, Spider-Island and Apocalypse among many other battlegrounds, ruled by Doctor Death. Do you want a look at true multiverse of madness? Here it is.
‘America Chavez: Made in America’, by Kalinda Vázquez and Carlos Gómez
America has been through a lot of bands before he got his first shot at solo, and if you don’t mind taking a look at the probable future of the MCU I would strongly advise you to reach out to ‘Young Avengers’, one of the best superhero comics of the last two decades. Of América Chavez we have seen his future (taking the mantle of Captain America), his present and part of his past, but ‘Made in America’ turns everything upside down completely.
If you just want a fun comic of the character as you’ve seen him on screen (but with control over his powers), come on over to ‘America’, by Gabby Rivera and Joe Quinones, as funny as it is inconsequential. Now, in ‘Made in America’ everything we know about the character and his past is changed and new layers of tragedy are given. He is a relatively recent character and she’s only been rubbing elbows with Spider-man and the rest for ten years, so she’ll have to give her time to see the kind of superhero she wants to be. Surely after ‘Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness’ there is something planned for her…
‘The New Avengers: Illuminati’ (2006)
Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Namor, Black Lightning, Charles Xavier and Doctor Strange: The Illuminati formed in the 70’safter the kree-skrull war, but we readers only found out 35 years later, when Brian Michael Bendis put together a group with representatives of each of the most important factions on Earth (Avengers, Fantastic Four, Atlantis, inhumans, mutants and the Sorcerer Supreme) that I would try to avoid disasters Similar. They came out regular.
The Illuminati are one of the strongest groups in the entire Marvel Universe, and although They started as a secret societyin the end, many people have passed through there after the events of ‘Secret invasion’ or ‘Secret wars’, which we have talked about before: Medusa, Captain America, Hulk, Amadeus Cho, Beast… In the end, Namor himself took the idea of the Illuminati to create the Cabala, a secret supervillain team. That said: the idea came out regular.
‘Doctor Strange: The Oath’ by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martín
not this story it will not give you new light about nothing that happens in the movie (try Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo’s ‘Doctor Strange’ series to better understand how the magic works), but it is, possibly, the best modern comic of the character. In 2007, Stranger, in astral form, searches for the cure for Wong’s brain tumor and, incidentally, tries to find out who just murdered him.
It is a story deeply human, but with pulp touches and without neglecting fun and social criticism. Those of you who know Strange only from the movies will probably be confused by the vision of a character very different from the one you are used to seeing. Eye: is complementary, not exclusive. Highly recommended.
‘Spider-man Universe’, by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos and Olivier Coipel
I have left for the end a comic that a priori has nothing to do with the film, but at the same time makes it clear -perhaps better than ‘Secret wars’- that The multiverse thing in Marvel is not limited to a little trip between five places where the red light means you can pass. ‘Spider-man Universe’ Depicts An Interdimensional Struggle Bringing Everyone (Literally Everyone) Together the Spider-man of more than a hundred universes different to fight Morlun and his people.
It is a festival for the eyes of the fans, although I have my doubts that it is a good place to enter to read: after all, part of the fun is going recognizing characters from other comics and other times, from the cartoon series of the 60s to the newspaper strips. And it is that the Marvel universe is as big as it is unpredictable, and in the cinema it has only just begun. Will we ever see something like this? ‘Spider-Man Universe’ with all versions of Doctor Strange? Who knows. Hopefully!