(hope this fits on this board)

Hi,

For a long time I've been wanting to jump back into reading Marvel (I started in Marvel not too long ago, but then I read some DC (I enjoy the characters of both) and it sort of snowballed and I just read more & more, and now that I know the ins-&-out of DC it's felt hard to read more Marvel (and not be as comfortable because I don't know all the tiny details of the characters & plots as I've grown to know with DC)).

Anyway, I've had my eye on reading Civil War for a long time because I know it's a big event and the plot seems interesting. The trouble is I've seen the COMPLETE list of the storyline and a little over 100 issues seems a bit much for a start back (hell, I wouldn't even read that much for 1 event for DC, especially considering my attention span's been waning as of late). When I've read DC events in the past I've usually just read the core event books (about 7), and any tie-ins that were written for the event (like for DC's Infinite Crisis, I read the OMAC, Society of Super Villains (etc) books, that were also about 7 each), and maybe a few individual issues if they were that important (like the issue of Wonder Woman where she kills Maxwell Lord). I'm looking to do the same with Civil War.

Would I be able to do that & have a firm grasp of the story? (I feel I do with IC & FC in DC, by using that "method"). What specific issues should I read to accomplish this? Looking at a list (of the 100+) now I see in addition to the Civil War books there are ones like "Civil War Frontline", "Civil War The Return", etc. I would imagine I should read those. Are there any individual issues from on going series that are critical as well?

I hope this isn't too confusing, when I could have just said "What should I read, without having to read every single little issue?" haha - but I know I'll get a good answer here on CV.

I suppose the main ones would be:

Civil War

Front Line

Captain America

Iron Man

Illuminati

Amazing Spider-Man

At least those are the ones I read.

No need to read it. It sucked.

Read the original one instead.

@lightsout: I agree with the books that @JediXMan: posted. I would also add New Avengers onto there. It does a good job of showing the struggles that the different characters go through throughout the whole War.

@Remi said:

No need to read it. It sucked.

Read the original one instead.

FINALLY. Somebody says it!

Thanks a lot everyone!

@Cap10nate - Yea, that is a good idea (since major players in the CW are members). With those my tally (looking at the reading list & picking those out) is a tad over 50, haha. More than I thought, but much better than 100+ (and the lesser number of different titles will result in less confusion (/forgetting what happened in the previous issue) I'm sure).

semi-related note, I HAVE read the Kingdom Come comic and novelization & loved them both (when Superman "returned" to the bridge scene, it gave me chills).

@lightsout: Civil War does pretty well to stay a self contained book. It was really one of the first stories that I read outside Captain America since I got back into reading comics. I think you could just read the seven issues of CW and then decide what other characters you would like to follow to read after that. That is really what I did, and I thought it worked out well. I thought Kingdom Come was a good story too. I just don't like how it is not in continuity so the reprocussions don't matter. CW has a big impact on the Marvel U from Secret Invasion to Dark Reign to Seige.