1961 was the year that kicked of the Silver Age of Marvel comics with the publication of Fantastic Four #1 in November. The first year of Marvel Comics is easy to follow, because the number of magazines is small and they are all independent of each other. You can either follow the chronological reading order or just read all the issues of each magazine on one go.
Fantastic Four #1–9
Ant-Man: Tales to Astonish #27, 35–38
The Incredible Hulk #1–4
Thor: Journey into Mystery #83–87
Spider-Man: Amazing Fantasy #15
The Human Torch: Strange Tales #101–103
Recommended reading:
Fantastic Four #1, #2, #4, #5, #8. All of the Fantastic Four issues are entertaining this year, but the ones listed here introduce major characters that will be around for years. In addition to the origins of FF in issue 1, notable characters include The Mole Man, Skrulls, the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Doom, the Puppet Master, and The Thing’s girlfriend Alicia Masters.
It’s worthwhile to read the origins of Ant-Man from Tales to Astonish #27 and #35, but the rest of it is pretty bland.
Likewise, Hulk #1 is the origin story of Hulk and introduces all the major characters, but after that the stories are average at best and have very little substance.
Journey into Mystery #83 introduces Thor, but in later issues the stories become very generic. Issues #84–#86 introduce Jane Foster, Loki, Heimdall, and Odin, so you might want to check them out, but story-wise they are not the best.
Strange Tales #102 introduces the Wizard, who will be around for quite some time, but generally the Human Torch stories are just fillers.
The year is characterized with a lot of cookie-cutter plots and fighting alien invaders, but luckily things get more interesting the following year.
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