What is real literature? Some have described literature as stories about losers, others have reduced literary merit to formulaic equations where length and number of deaths determine legitimacy. The truth is, dusty old scholars aside, the definition of real literature is a subjective thing and depends on the reader’s yardstick. Stories considered to be “real literature” generally tend to revolve around subjects considered central to the human experience. If it involves sweeping themes of pain, misery, betrayal, death, loneliness, isolation, vengeance, or tragedy, someone somewhere has read and been moved by it in the past.

In the almost eighty year history of Marvel Comics, there have been a number of stories that should qualify as comics for book lovers, but are instead ignored and considered “funny books.” As the genre has progressed and evolved, there have been deep Marvel moments that reach the border of what is considered real literature, and then go flying past it, into territory waiting to be discovered. These are ten storylines and their accompanying themes Marvel has explored that prove comics are real literature.