There may be more to this comment coming later, as I plan to ask again at the weekly chat, and but here's the combined wisdom of everybody who was there tonight! These are ones which are hopefully understandable without much comics background, but your mileage may vary.
AUs/What Ifs (...most of these also count as oneshots/miniseries. A lot of the recs here are for only Steve or only Tony, but you can easily add the other in to the world-building) - Oneshot: What If? Vol 2 #133, What If Tony Stark Was the Sorcerer Supreme (Tony only) - Oneshot: What If? Vol 1 #33, What If Iron Man Was Trapped In the Time of King Arthur (Tony only) - Miniseries: Iron Man Noir (it's 1940s IM! Tony only) - Oneshot: X-factor #231 (cyborg!Steve, hot silverfox!Tony, post-apocalyptic!Earth) - Exiles Vol 1 #31-32 (aka 'What if Captain America was King of the Vampires') - Giant Sized Little Marvel (all the heroes and villains are young kids... with costumes and enough powers to blow up their neighbourhood)
A bunch of the currently-running mini-AU series from Secret Wars count. Currently-running means that they're not complete, but there's also a lot more current discussion about them. Some of interest: - 1872 (Issue #1 is wildly loved, issue #2 has quite a bit of controversy about it and if you're squeamish about things, you should probably ask for warnings). - Planet Hulk (Steve only) (Steve! Dressed as a gladiator! Apparently spends a lot of time in bondage) - Civil War (an AU where they never stopped fighting, and split the US down the middle)
Other oneshots/miniseries (non-AU) - Oneshot: Avengers Annual 2013 (christmas at the Tower!) (I think this is supposed to be set in 616, but it may be an AU in its own pocket-universe, after all) - Miniseries: Avengers Prime (Steve, Thor, and Tony go on an unexpected camping trip, after Steve and Tony have been fighting for ages) (set in 616) - Oneshot-ish: Captain America and Iron Man Vol 1 #633, One Night In Madripoor (technically part of a larger series, but a lot of people just treat it as it's own thing and forget the rest of the storyline...) (set in 616)
As for how to access them: Many of these are older, so if you have a Marvel Unlimited subscription (to access comics on their website), you will probably be able to access them through there. Unlimited is about $10 USD a month for access to all comics older than six months, although there are some that are missing from their online database, so if you're doing a lot of backreading then it's really worth the price. If you don't have unlimited, you can buy issues individually online, or via your Local Comic Store. Or hit us up on the IRC, for directions to other locations that we can't mention on LJ (in order to keep the comm from having any difficulties with the LJ TOS) ;)
Do come check out the chat! I've noticed it tends to be most active during evening in the Americas on weekdays, but on weekends it's more active throughout a variety of timezones. And we've got a number of night-owls.
Hopefully this is a good start! If you Google search the volume #s or titles above, you should be able to find more info about each storyline, as Marvel comics are pretty extensively wiki'd.
no subject
There may be more to this comment coming later, as I plan to ask again at the weekly chat, and but here's the combined wisdom of everybody who was there tonight! These are ones which are hopefully understandable without much comics background, but your mileage may vary.
AUs/What Ifs (...most of these also count as oneshots/miniseries. A lot of the recs here are for only Steve or only Tony, but you can easily add the other in to the world-building)
- Oneshot: What If? Vol 2 #133, What If Tony Stark Was the Sorcerer Supreme (Tony only)
- Oneshot: What If? Vol 1 #33, What If Iron Man Was Trapped In the Time of King Arthur (Tony only)
- Miniseries: Iron Man Noir (it's 1940s IM! Tony only)
- Oneshot: X-factor #231 (cyborg!Steve, hot silverfox!Tony, post-apocalyptic!Earth)
- Exiles Vol 1 #31-32 (aka 'What if Captain America was King of the Vampires')
- Giant Sized Little Marvel (all the heroes and villains are young kids... with costumes and enough powers to blow up their neighbourhood)
A bunch of the currently-running mini-AU series from Secret Wars count. Currently-running means that they're not complete, but there's also a lot more current discussion about them. Some of interest:
- 1872 (Issue #1 is wildly loved, issue #2 has quite a bit of controversy about it and if you're squeamish about things, you should probably ask for warnings).
- Planet Hulk (Steve only) (Steve! Dressed as a gladiator! Apparently spends a lot of time in bondage)
- Civil War (an AU where they never stopped fighting, and split the US down the middle)
Other oneshots/miniseries (non-AU)
- Oneshot: Avengers Annual 2013 (christmas at the Tower!) (I think this is supposed to be set in 616, but it may be an AU in its own pocket-universe, after all)
- Miniseries: Avengers Prime (Steve, Thor, and Tony go on an unexpected camping trip, after Steve and Tony have been fighting for ages) (set in 616)
- Oneshot-ish: Captain America and Iron Man Vol 1 #633, One Night In Madripoor (technically part of a larger series, but a lot of people just treat it as it's own thing and forget the rest of the storyline...) (set in 616)
As for how to access them: Many of these are older, so if you have a Marvel Unlimited subscription (to access comics on their website), you will probably be able to access them through there. Unlimited is about $10 USD a month for access to all comics older than six months, although there are some that are missing from their online database, so if you're doing a lot of backreading then it's really worth the price. If you don't have unlimited, you can buy issues individually online, or via your Local Comic Store. Or hit us up on the IRC, for directions to other locations that we can't mention on LJ (in order to keep the comm from having any difficulties with the LJ TOS) ;)
Do come check out the chat! I've noticed it tends to be most active during evening in the Americas on weekdays, but on weekends it's more active throughout a variety of timezones. And we've got a number of night-owls.
Hopefully this is a good start! If you Google search the volume #s or titles above, you should be able to find more info about each storyline, as Marvel comics are pretty extensively wiki'd.