If you want the most complete look at the Marvel Universe there is really only one place to start, way back at the beginning. Honestly this isn’t recommended for everyone. If you choose this yes you will experience all the events and learn about all the characters but it comes at the cost of reading thousands and thousands of issues. If this is what you want to do we have you covered. Just head to the Marvel Master Reading Order and start reading. An alternative to reading everything in the Master reading order would be to choose the characters you are interested in and reading their individual Character Reading Orders up to one of the other Starting Points and then continuing on from there.

If you are interested in starting at the beginning of the current age of Marvel events then this is a good place to start. The Avengers Disassembled event in 2004 was the beginning of the modern series of big crossover events. If you want to start here you can head to the Marvel Event Timeline and start reading events from Avengers Disassembled and continue on from there. If you want a more complete reading experience and want to read the issues that take place between the events as well then head to the Marvel Master Reading Order Part 7 and start reading it at the Avengers Disassembled event. Optionally New X-Men #114-156 takes place prior to the Avengers Disassembled event and provides a starting point for modern X-Men comics so you may want to read them before moving on to Avengers Disassembled.

Marvel NOW! was a huge relaunch in 2012 of the entire line of Marvel comics that was specifically designed to provide a jumping on point for new readers. If this is where you want to begin then head to the Marvel NOW! Reading Order and start reading. Optionally you could first read Uncanny X-Force #1-35 (2010) which will help with your understanding of what is going on in Marvel NOW!. You may also want to read Avengers vs. X-Men which was the last major event before Marvel NOW! and will set up what is going on with the X-Men and Avengers in Marvel NOW!.