During 1963, Marvel really started to build what would become the Marvel superhero universe. They introduced a staggering number of characters, both heroes and villains who would become enduring staples in comics and other media. And naturally, they introduced as many other characters that were equally forgettable. The magazines are still mostly independent of each other, with only a few references to older issues or other magazines. You can either follow the chronological reading order or read all issues of each magazine at once.
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1–4
Fantastic Four #10–21
Strange Tales #104–115 (issue #115 refers to Fantastic Four #20, so you might want to read that first)
The Incredible Hulk #5–6
Ant-Man: Tales to Astonish #39–51 (January 1964 issue)
The Amazing Spider-Man #1–7
Thor: Journey into Mystery #88–100 (January 1964 issue)
Iron Man: Tales of Suspense #39–48
Avengers #1–2
Uncanny X-Men #1–2
Recommended reading:
Fantastic Four #10, #13, #16, #17, #19 and The Fantastic Four Annual #1. Fantastic Four have hits and misses this year, but the issues listed here are entertaining and introduce iconic characters including the Watcher and Kang the Conqueror.
Strange Tales #110–112, #114–115. The Torch’s adventures in Strange Tales are generally forgettable, but the B-story in issue #110 introduces Doctor Strange, whose adventures are interesting from the beginning and make these issues worth reading.
Tales of Suspense #39. This issue introduces Iron Man in an origin story that is quite similar to the one in MCU’s first Iron Man movie. The rest of the issues this year are not very memorable.
The Amazing Spider-Man #1–#4, #6. All the first year’s Spider-Man comics are great, but these issues introduce classic Spider-Man villains the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, the Lizard, and many of the major characters that will appear a lot in the following comics.
Avengers #1 and Uncanny X-Men #1 are interesting as first issues that introduce the new groups, but the following issues of both comics are not particularly great.
Thor’s adventures in Journey into Mystery are not that great in 1963, but the B-story Tales of Asgard that begins in issue #98 is fun to read.
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos is a war comic that Marvel published from 1963 to 1981. It takes place during the second world war and is not really related to the superhero universe. The stories are over-the-top war adventures, and I personally found them boring after a few issues. However, the stories contain some references to later events in the Marvel universe and introduce characters that will appear in the superhero comics, so those might be of interest to someone. Marvel Unlimited only has issues #1–43 and if you find them interesting, you can just read through the whole lot without worrying about continuity with other magazines. If you want only the most interesting bits of 1963, issue #1 introduces Nick Fury and other commandos who’ll later become S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and in issue #3 Nick Fury briefly meets Reed Richards.
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