After Age of Ultron: Your Marvel Phase 3 Reading List

Captain America: Civil War
The first Phase 3 film is an adaptation of a 2006-2007 storyline headed by prolific, blockbuster-friendly writer Mark Millar. He wrote a seven-issue series that gives you the essence of the story line, but the event took over the entire Marvel comics universe. Despite its name, the Iron Man collection combines several Captain America issues alongside the title story, and is another good choice. The Spider-Man collection might be relevant, too, as the friendly neighborhood web-shooter makes his MCU debut in the 2016 film. Captain America and Spider-Man’s lives in particular are dramatically changed before the end of the comics’ version of events. It’ll be interesting to see of the MCU can bring itself to truly commit to those aspects of the storyline.

Doctor Strange
The Oath is the high-water mark for Doctor Strange stories, exploring his character while delivering a fascinating story. If you want his origin, check out the first volume of Marvel Masterworks.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2
There’s no telling where the sequel is headed, but the original Guardians drew inspiration from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s 25-issue run, compiled starting with this collection. The comedy and action are what movie fans will expect, though the storyline is likely to be completely rewritten

Untitled Spider-Man Film
The Ultimate Spider-Man comics are a modern-day reboot, designed to attract new audiences to a character whose storylines had gotten pretty convoluted over the course of decades. That’s also a great description of the upcoming Marvel reboot, and it only took ten years for the filmed Spider-Men to get too confusing. The Ultimate series will likely serve as inspiration for at least a little of the film, given their similarities (both feature Pete Parker in high school), but, like all the suggestions on this list, it’s worth a read even if the MCU chucks it out the window completely.

Thor: Ragnorok
Here’s where things get frustrating: judging by its proximity to the release of Captain America: Civil War, it’s likely the third Thor film will draw from the Norse God’s chunk of the 2004 Avengers Disassembled crossover event, which dealt with the continued dissolution of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Unfortunately, that volume is out of print. Instead, why not enjoy a sample of Walter Simonson’s classic mid-’80s run?

Avengers: Infinity War, Parts 1 and 2
There is an event called “Infinity War” in the comics, but it’s just a sequel to the Infinity Gauntlet storyline that will no doubt inform the two-part film.

Black Panther
Reginald Hudlin is being consulted for the Black Panther movie, and he’s already written a great introductory volume with an on-the-nose title: Who Is the Black Panther? That said, the run written by Christopher Priest is also a classic.

Captain Marvel
2012’s In Pursuit of Flight marks the start of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel series—don’t be fooled by the fact that Higher, Further, Faster, More is also a first volume. I don’t know why Marvel relaunched a series with the same title and writer, but I assume it was to confuse people like me. [Editor’s note: And me.] This is the most modern source material yet for a Marvel film, and DeConnick has received a heap of well-deserved praise for it, so I’ll be surprised if this iteration of Earth’s Mightiest Hero doesn’t make it onto the 2018 blockbuster, especially considering its incorporation of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Inhumans
Finally, the Inhumans film will cap off Phase 3 in July 2019. The 1998 collection is a fun way to get acquainted with the cast of characters. The Inhumans have always lived in one of the weirdest corners of the Marvel universe, but the strong writing and great artwork found here really highlight what has always been Marvel’s greatest attribute: its characters.
What Phase 3 film are you looking forward to the most?