Comic Book Continuity Confusion
Where do you even begin?
Ever since the dawn of comic books, the continuity has always been baffling, especially to newer readers.
People have so many questions like “Where do I begin?”, “Do I need to read this to understand that?”, “Are the comics, shows, or movies canon?”
It’s madness, I tell you!
Unlike manga which is usually written and drawn by one author only and follows a simple story structure from beginning to end, comics have always been more confusing to readers. It’s no wonder why people have been moving more towards manga in droves in the past 2 decades or so. Manga is just way easier to follow for a complete beginning to end story. In Dragon Ball, you see Goku start as a kid and ages until he becomes a grandfather at the end of the story.
Yeah, it’s confusing isn’t it?
Technically, you would have to start with The Uncanny X-Men #1 from 1963 and then work your way up to X-Men #1 from 1991.
I remember when X-Men #1 came out in 1991, I thought that was the very first X-Men issue and the start of the story. However, it started off with Magneto in space and Wolverine and Psylocke already part of the X-Men. This was way later into the X-Men story.
But why isn’t X-Men #1 titled “Uncanny X-Men #1000?” or something like that?
Comics have been around for a very long time and only used to come out once a month or less back in the early days. In order to get more comics out on shelves for people to buy, companies like Marvel and DC would make separate publications to get books out faster and on a weekly basis.
For example, Spider-Man has several publications.
The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 (1963-1998)
Web of Spider-Man (1985-1995)
The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976-1998)
Spider-Man (1990-1998)
Any waaaaay too many more to count. Let’s not jump into their Vol 2’s…
Comic books have been handed off to different writers and artists for decades which messes up continuity. Sometimes writers are told to continue the work of the previous writers. Sometimes writers do their own thing and sometimes writers decide to ignore the previous continuity and make their own.
But why can’t there be only ONE artist and writer for comics?!
Considering comics have been around for decades since the early 1900’s, writers are always constantly changing as they move onto new projects or endeavors. Stan Lee wrote and Jack Kirby drew the first Uncanny X-Men along with working on other franchises like Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, etc. In order to get more comic books out on the shelves, companies will hire multiple writers and artists to get more books out on a weekly basis under different publications.
Eventually, certain story arcs will end and the writers and artists will move onto something else. Sadly, there have been writers and artists who have passed away like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, so another writer has to take their place.
Do Comic Book Characters Actually Age?
Peter Parker was around 15 years old when he first became Spider-Man. We see him graduate high school and College and he seems to stop aging in his mid to late twenties. We have seen him depicted as an older middle aged man in Spider-Girl (1998-2006), but most publications have Spider-Man depicted in his late 20’s or early 30’s.
Spider-Man made his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962. If he was 15 in 1962, he would be 78 in 2025. There have been more than enough comics released to have Spider-Man fight battles nearly every day of his life from 1962-2025 and beyond. However, unlike manga where characters properly age, the audience can lose interest if the heroes age and nobody wants to see Spider-Man fighting in a wheelchair. Writers keep the heroes young so newer generations can get into them.
I’m STILL confused, so where do I start?
In all honesty:
Don’t overthink it.
Just pick up a random issue and start reading from there. If you liked what you read, then you can easily google or wikipedia any relevant storyline information. The comic book companies know that their history is confusing and convoluted, and Stan Lee once said “Every comic book is somebody’s first comic book”. You’ll most likely be reading in the middle of a storyline, but with the advent of the internet, it’s very easy to find out which issues you need to read to get the whole story with nifty reading guides provided by both the companies and the fans. Back when I was a kid and didn’t have the internet, we didn’t have this luxury. I remember when reading Maximum Carnage in 1993, I had no idea who Doppelganger, Demogoblin, Carrion, and several other characters were, but I always wanted to see their origins.
When I finally got internet access, I looked them all up and sought out the comic book issues that contained their origins. Now thanks to subscription services like Marvel Unlimited, DC Infinite, Comixology, and more, finding out the origins of your favorite comic book characters is easier than it’s ever been. Just recently in 2024, I finally read the entire Inferno Crisis that spanned from multiple comics ranging from X-Factor, Spider-Man, X-Men, and more.
At the time of this writing, I’m re-reading The Death and Return of Superman, Batman: Knightfall, Tales of the TMNT Vol 2, TMNT IDW Vol 1, Spawn, Savage Dragon, Classic 60’s X-Men and Spider-Man, The Punisher, and way too much to count. Unlike my childhood, I’m now having a much more fun time reading comics as I have the internet as a resource for information.
Comics have been adapted into various forms of media such as movies, TV shows, games and more, so there’s never really a strict continuity among them. It’s encouraged to just create your own head canon as even the comic book companies can’t even tell you a strict canon for their characters.
New comic book fans are being made every day and with nearly a century’s worth of stories for various franchises, there’s always going to be something for everyone.
Just pick up a comic you’re interested in and give it a go.
