Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
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The Rules
The goal of this project is to create an order for (my) Marvel comics so that the entire collection can be read from start to finish and be in the actual order that they have occurred within the Marvel Universe. This means that if Spider-Man appears in an issue of the Avengers, that appearance must fit within the stories going on in his own issues (Is he wearing the right costume? Is he worried about things that have already passed in his own book? Is he looking healthy at a time when he's supposed to be sick?).
The order i choose isn't necessarily the only one possible. Many stories take place without any context that affects other books. But there can't be any contradictions in the order i've placed them in (or the contradiction has to be explained).
Some stories take place concurrently, and sometimes a character goes back and forth between two issues at the same time. I generally put these issues right next to each other and make a note saying so. Sometimes a long run of comics takes place concurrently with a lot of issues (like a big Avengers epic that several characters rotate out of at various points to participate in Marvel Team-Ups. So sometimes lots of comics are taking place "concurrently". Again, i'll note it.
Here is how the entries are laid out. Depending on specific circumstances, sometimes the layout will have to be modified, but this is generally the way it goes.
Issue(s): If it's not a single issue, it's a run of consecutive issues that make up a single story. If Super Monkey #1-3 are part of one story, they will usually be included in one entry. If #4 is not part of the same story, it will not be included in the same entry even if it is the next issue in my collection. Sometimes a story will contain stories from multiple titles, in which case they may or may not all be included in a single entry, depending on how tightly woven the stories are. For compilation trades or issues, they will all be included in the same entry as long as the stories can fit together chronologically. Otherwise i will have already torn the trade up into smaller pieces and placed them accordingly in my collection. I list every issue included in the entry individually, separated by commas, to maximize search-ability, even though it's a little awkward and repetitive.
I haven't quite figured out how to handle multiple volumes yet (for example, the Avengers series that started in the 60s, the Heroes Reborn reboot, the Heroes Return reboot, etc). I really don't want to clutter up the titles with volume numbers. So far i'm just listing them by their title and hoping that the fact that i include the cover dates will make it clear.
Published Date: This is the date of publication listed on the indicia (i.e, the cover date), which is generally a few months ahead of when a book was actually released. For annuals and other special editions i usually just list the year.
Title: I'm only keeping track of the titles to see how many appearances by Dr. Doom are called Doomsday and how many by Apocalypse are called Apocalypse Now. For entries with multiple issues, pay attention to the quotes. If a single issue has multiple titles (because the story is broken into multiple parts, or there's a back-up story) you'll find it all included in one set of quotes. Issues are separated with a slash outside of the quotes. So: "Main story title / Back-up story title" / "Story title" is listing two issues, and the first issue had two titles. Confusing? I hope not.
Credits: Generally i'm interested in the writer, penciller, and inker. (At one point i was going to log the Assistant Editor and Editor as well, but i haven't been doing that consistently). Some people will feel that i'm slighting the colorist and letterer, but i don't usually pay attention to who is doing that (sorry). Golden Age books often don't have credits, and when they do it's usually just the artist/writer. Starting in the 90s, with painted and computer
generated art, the credits for artist need to be a little more customized.
I list creators by what i think is the name they are most commonly known by. So Al Milgrom, not Allen Milrom. Barry Windsor-Smith, not Barry Smith. Christopher Priest, not Jim Owsley (that was a tough choice). That way you can search for one name and get all of their listings.
For entries with multiple issues, i only list each creator once for each category, unless s/he's teamed-up with someone in another issue. For example, if Joe Sinnott inks issues #1-4, and on issue #2 Al Milgrom helped with the inks, you'll see: Joe Sinnott / Joe Sinnott & Al Milgrom.
I'll usually mention the details in the credits, letting you know that Milgrom was only on issue #2.
Review/plot: The primary purpose of this project is making sure the comics are in the right order, so the plot summary will take first priority, but it's not like i'm going to be looking at this completely objectively so my opinions will be thrown in as well.
Quality Rating: This is a rating based on how good the story is. It should not be modified based on the age of the story ("oh, it was good for the time") or the significance of the events that are occurring. It takes into account the plot, the dialogue, and the art (both storytelling ability and whether or not it "looks good"). I'm always willing to let the art slide a little if the story is good, but less so when the reverse is true.
Essentially the consideration for the ratings is as follows:
Historical Significance Rating: This is a rating on how important this comic is to the overall story of the Marvel Universe. It is unrelated to the quality of the story. Here are the considerations for an entry's historical rating. These are guidelines.
Chronological Placement Considerations: This is actually what it is all about. This will discuss why the comic is where it is. Whenever possible, comics will be placed as close to publication date as possible, but due to the events in the comic it won't always be possible. I'll list my assumptions and any roadblocks i've run into. I'll be using 1980s no-prize rules: the comics can never be wrong and it is up to me to explain why an apparent continuity error is in fact not one.
References: Here i'll list any references to other comics. Usually i'll go by the footnotes, but i'll also look for other references as well. Wherever possible (i.e., if i have it in my collection), the reference will be a link to the entry for the comic being referenced. I generally won't list references to recent issues of the same series.
Cross-over: Lists the major or minor crossover the comic may be a part of.
Continuity Implant? Indicates whether or not the comic was a deliberate retcon, meaning that it was written to fit into a previous time period. For example, the Untold Tales of Spider-Man were written in the 90s but took place amongst the Amazing Spider-Man comics in the 60s. A P stands for partial, which usually means a reprint book that adds new scenes or a back-up story (like Classic X-Men).
Reprinted In: If the book i have is a reprint, lists the reprint. Sometimes this is significant because stories are often modified in reprint form - pages added or removed, topical references updated, etc. Please be aware that this field isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of all reprints of the issue(s) being reviewed. It's just indicating if my copy is a reprint. The UHBMCC is a good source for finding reprint info.
Inbound References: This field will show up if there are other entries on the site that link to this entry. Usually that means that issue had a Reference to this issue, so it's a good way to see how often a particular comic has been referred back to by other comics. The field does also count times when i wanted to make a reference back to the issue even if there wasn't an explicit reference in another issue.
Characters Appearing: This will list all the significant characters in the comic, and they're links so you can click on a character and see just that character's appearances in chronological order (although it probably won't work perfectly and you should just go to the Marvel Chronology Project instead.). I'll basically list every super powered character, and most of the significant supporting characters. When a character has had more than one name over the years, I will try to use the most common name (sometimes i screw up and accidentally split up a character when they have multiple names; let me know). My name choices can be seen on this Name look-up page (that page is way out of date and needs an update).
By the way, i really hate putting roman numerals after a character to distinguish multiple characters with the same name. For legacy characters (the Black Knights, the Crymson Dynamos), i'm ok with it, but otherwise i try to put some sort of descriptive difference in parenthesis instead.
Your Quality Rating / Reader Ratings: This is a widget from Polldaddy.com that lets you to supply your own opinion on an issue's quality. You can supplement that rating with a comment or just click on a star and leave it at that. Just to be clear, the point is for you to rate the issue(s), not my review. You can complain about my review all you want in the comments.
Comments: This is where you get to yell at me. My comments policy is very lax. I don't require you to register for anything and there are no required fields (so there's no need to make up a fake email address, people!). You can comment about anything tangentially related to the entry in question. You can also post a comment about the site generally by clicking on the Contact link on the sidebar. It's ok to promote your own site or whatever as long as you're being relevant. My one request is that you don't personally attack another commenter. There's nothing wrong with disagreements about any relevant topics but what i don't want is name-calling, aspersions about people's intelligence, crypto-political speculation ("if that's what you think you must be a dumbass conservative/liberal/whatever"). This is a small site; we can all be civil. You can be as mean to me as you like, but not to the other commenters. Click the Chamomile Tea button if you are feeling angry.
Right now it's an unsophisticated comments system - no threaded discussions, no ability to go back and edit your posts, no ability to "like" another person's comment. So far i've resisted upgrading to a Disqus or something because those programs are a heavy load and they store the comments on their own server, which i don't like. And they require registration; whereas i want commenting to be as easy as possible. So i apologize for any deficiencies, and don't feel bad about typos that you can't go back and edit.
I used to have major problems with spam but i seem to have defeated them for now. The tradeoff is that comments will go to Moderation if you have a lot of links or if (it seems) you spend a lot of time on a page before clicking Submit. I usually clear those comments as soon as possible, but give me a nudge under Contact if you think it's taking too long.
One other warning. My comments system doesn't allow me to move comments to other entries. Why is this a problem? Well, sometimes i may have two issues in the same entry and later realize i need to split them up. Or, vice versa, two issues in separate entries that need to be merged. In those cases, i may have to edit or delete your comment. If i edit it, it'll be to put a note in to explain why your comment is about an issue not currently in the entry, or if i delete it i'll add it back to my description ("Commenter X said 'This' but i lost the comment when i merged entries so i'm reprinting it here."). This happens very very rarely, but just wanted to mention it.
Note that based on the rules above the ratings may seem very harsh to someone not familiar with the criteria. A lot of the 'classic' issues of the Silver Age are going to get low scores because they don't age well. And to earn an A you really have to be something special, not just a really good standard superhero story. This is an area that i understand will get some people upset, and that's not my intention. See the Q&A for more on this.
