Marvel: Siege & Marvel: 1985, by various.
Another couple of free comics that I would never normally have picked up, but were sitting in my office at a time when I had nothing else to read so got pushed to the top of the pile. I know almost nothing about Marvel comics, to be honest - I read a couple as a kid, but I was mostly a DC reader, so I never really know who the characters are. Oh, I’ve seen the films, and I know the basics, but it’s the background guys who leave me with a blank look on my face. Given that, Siege was pretty much incomprehensible to me, although it barrelled along quite nicely and I think I followed the central plot, even if some of the nuances escaped me. Still don’t really care, though. I read the paperback collection, ISBN: 9781846534522
1985 was a lot more successful for me, however. It isn’t really about Marvel superheroes, except in the sense that they inspired the children of the mid-eighties. Instead our hero is a kid who loves his comics, in a world like ours. He has problems at home, at school and so on, and when he starts seeing the Marvel heroes, it looks like his mind has gone wonky. Of course they turn out to be really here, and the book degenerates into more of a Marvel punch-up then I would have liked, but there are some very nice touches on the way. You still need a certain amount of knowledge of the characters, but a vague awareness of modern pop culture should do it. Worth a look, ISBN: 9781846534065