I’m not a reader of comic books.  I followed The Punisher for a while about 20 years ago but aside from that, I’ve never bought nor really read them.  I have a couple of friends that do however so when I need information I go to them.   My buddy Rob gets an earful from me whenever we go see a film adaption of a comic book because I always want to know if the film followed the comic.  I know I know, just read the comic right?  Well where does a girl start?

There’s so much to take into consideration especially since these characters have been around longer than I’ve been alive.  You also have to consider the relationships between characters and how one relates to another and so on.  It’s all so mind-boggling.  In a few conversations with Rob, as he’s explaining, the thought that comics are a lot like soap operas has crossed my mind.  Well the following images really drives that point home.

Joe Stone is a graphic designer / artist who has done three different family trees for comic book “families”.  He did one for the X-Men, one for Fantastic Four and his latest is one for the Avengers.  If you aren’t familiar with comics you will probably feel exactly like I did when I studied these.  Lost.  My eyes hurt after a while trying to figure it all out.  Then I realized that comics are exactly like a soap opera.  They die, come back, have evil twins, turn from good to evil to really evil….we’ll call it EVEEEIIIIL and then back to good again, shack up with anyone and everyone, then no one, then with someone else.  It’s all very General Hospital but with cooler characters and better fight scenes.

I’m including the images for each one below, but you should really check out Joe’s website.  He’s done some really great work.  I have to give this fella serious props for taking the time to put this stuff together.  It would seriously make my head spin.

The Avengers Family Tree:

Ok to be honest I can really only make out a few of these and I really had no idea the Avengers family was so extensive.  To Rob & Ron….stop shaking your heads at me.

The X-Men:

I know a few more of these thankfully so I’m not left feeling completely out of the loop.  Whew!

Fantastic Four:

I just can’t even talk about this one.  Aside from the four, I only know about what they addressed in the films.  I’ll go hang my head in shame now.

I guess I should follow Joe’s advice since I am, indeed confused.  Looks like a trip to the comic store is in order.  But where do I start?

About the author

Tracy Ladd has written 533 articles on this blog.

Tracy has been writing about film since her days on the her high school newspaper. Even though she took a decade or two off to explore other things, she's back to doing what she loves. She also bakes, can knit a pretty nifty scarf and makes lightsaber sounds with her knitting needles. Or chopsticks. Especially with the lightsaber chopsticks. Follow her on Twitter: @ReelGoddess

• Twitter
• Facebook

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 24th, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under Comic Book Movies, Film, Film Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.