Introduction

I've been reading comics for the greater part of 20 years. One of my favorite stories that I always seem to come back to is a maxi-series by Jim Kruegar & Alex Ross called Earth X. I love how almost every action or consequence in it is drawn upon some piece of Marvel lore. It introduced me to some of my favorite characters such as the Sub-Mariner and Black Bolt. At the time I had no idea just how in-depth the characterization and events drew upon events and characters that already existed, reading through more back issues of other Marvel series I quickly realized that Marvel has been doing this all along. Sure at the time the Fantastic Four were created nobody except maybe Jack Kirby at the time had any inkling on what Celestials are or were, and even though the Hulk's origin was originally tied to the day/night cycle, they had no idea that years later Kyle Richmond's powers would also be tied to the night. The thing I find most fascinating about the Marvel Universe is that the writers and artists did decide to build upon these pre-existing thoughts and notions of others to bring more weight to their own stories and at the same time build this foundation of continuity. Now I'll admit Marvel's continuity is far from perfect and I will point this out as they occur(given I've noticed myself), but I'm not going to nitpick stories, that isn't what this blog is about. I want to celebrate comics in spite of some of the less than stellar thoughts(the blantant sexism & racism) and stories.

With that in mind, I am going to start at the beginning with Fantastic Four #1 and work my way through them with a few side stops along the way. I am going to be using the "Main Reading Order" found at http://cmro.travis-starnes.com/reading-order.php  The reason I'm using it is because I'd rather cover a full story all the way through since this blog will be concentrating on continuity and character development and if I followed them month by month we'd have things like Thor hanging out with the Avengers but then him also being away on Asgard in his own book at the same time.