Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
SuperMegaMonkey
Comics Chronology
The Rules
Q&As
Recent Comments
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 occured 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 contradicitions in the order i've placed them in (or the contradiction has to be explained).
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.
Published Date: This is the date of publication listed on the indicia, which is generally a few months ahead of when a book is actually released.
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.
Credits: Generally i'm interested in the writer, penciller, inker, assistant editor, editor, and editor in chief. 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. The Editor In Chief role didn't really exist until the 70s. Starting in the 90s, with painted and computer
generated art, the credits for artist need to be a little more customized.
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 occuring. 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 refefences 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.
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.
Characters Appearing: This will list all the significant characters in the comic. The purpose of this is so that you can run a search 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. My name choices can be seen on this Name look-up page.
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.
