Marvel Collected Editions

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

Are these the same materials as the masterworks? Or are they different stories? Ive never knew about spiderman being in newspapers before and am very interested

Totally different stories. They are small comic strips that were included in daily and Sunday newspapers. The Masterworks cover the actual Amazing Spider-Man comics.

Marvel also released this Spider-Man collection of newspaper strips in 2 volumes, first in OHC and then in TPB, but they were in b&w and poorly presented. The IDW collections are in colour and in beautiful exclusive oversized hardcovers.

Btw, as a kid, I used to cut out the Spidey and Hulk newspaper strips and collect them. I probably still have them stowed away in the attic in my "Marvel cardboard box of goodies".

[RIPLynott]

Totally different stories. They are small comic strips that were included in daily and Sunday newspapers. The Masterworks cover the actual Amazing Spider-Man comics.

Marvel also released this Spider-Man collection of newspaper strips in 2 volumes, first in OHC and then in TPB, but they were in b&w and poorly presented. The IDW collections are in colour and in beautiful exclusive oversized hardcovers.

Btw, as a kid, I used to cut out the Spidey and Hulk newspaper strips and collect them. I probably still have them stowed away in the attic in my "Marvel cardboard box of goodies".

Very cool, you guys make convincing arguments to part with my money!

[PLEDGE]

Captain America and Iron Man sharing Tales of Suspense means that each issue had two stories, one with Captain, one with Iron Man. Iron Man collections have Iron Man stories, and Captain America collections have Captain America stories.

Awesome, thanks!

[Taral-DLOS]

I can't recall if it has been discussed much on here, but what are some thoughts on the X-men No More Humans? I am primarily an X fan but some reviews I have read randomly on line are not very favorable. The primary criticism seems to be that since it is in continuity but self contained that it starts-ends and basically advances nothing in the X-verse. Is it worth a read or basically just for completionists? I will probably get it eventually just trying to prioritize my to buy list.
Similar wonder about Endless Wartime. I haven't read any reviews on it that I can recall.

I've read both of these, and they were alright. Didn't care for the art in Endless Wartime, but the story was fine. Kind of an exploration of violence among superheroes, from some that never want to kill to others that see it as something that often just needs doing. A fun, more-or-less continuity-free story. One thing that irritated me though is that the setting is the fictional country of Slorenia, but to remain topical in this modern era, they moved it to Central Asia/Middle East (as a stand-in for Afghanistan). When Slorenia appeared in the Ultron story in Avengers Vol 3, it was in Eastern Europe and was a stand-in for one of the countries in Yugoslavia. Why move a country?! Just invent a new one!

No More Humans also didn't advance the plot much, but the main villain Raze had some interesting progression if memory serves. I also remember a debate on whether the mutants needed to solve the problem or just be ok with the situation. And I liked that it explored consequences that other books don't always notice (e.g. we could bring back the humans this way, but millions of them will die, cause their cars drove off bridges or their planes fell from the sky, etc.)

Stories don't always need continuity or progression to be good. I liked them for what they were: fun stories.

[FanboyStranger]

There is also a Daredevil Epic Collection entitled Widow's Kiss which has just been released. This is non-Nocenti and non-JRJR material, though. It covers the last 16 issues of the first Daredevil series i.e. #365-380 and also includes Daredevil #-1 and the Daredevil/Deadpool Annual '97.

These are good stories, mostly written by Joe Kelly. The real draw is Gene Colan returning as artist during Kelly's run. There's also the final issue of DD, vol 1, written by Chichester and drawn by the always underrated Lee Weeks.

[Captain Planet]

I'm reading AVengers forever right now, but I'm not well versed in Avengers history at all. I am CONFUSED. Is this normal lol....or do I have bad reading comprehension

The story does a lot of Avengers housekeeping. It does retconning and you have to know what it's retconning for it to make complete sense. With that said - it's till enjoyable even if you don't know everything it's referencing.

[Captain Planet]

I'm wrestling with similar questions and found the following opinion piece fairly informative, at least to give me an idea of the specific complaints regarding this crossover event:

http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/201...ht-of-the-90s/

Hope this helps. I'm currently on the fence about picking up the omni due to the poor reputation of the storyline. However, I am leaning towards getting it - not so much for entertainment value, but more for the monument it represents - the moment when Marvel went completely off the rails, pimped out some of its most beloved characters to Image artists, and finally abandoned any pretense of preserving decades of established continuity. I am admittedly morbidly curious to watch the train wreck unfold. I missed this event back in '96, having become sufficiently disgusted with gimmicky covers, guest stars, artists defecting to Image, endless price increases, crossover fatigue, and editorial interference that I walked away from my favorite hobby entirely. Rediscovering my love for the medium through collected editions has been a true joy in recent years.

Plus, the completionist in me wants to see where Lobdell ultimately took his storyline with these characters. I've been reconstructing the Claremont run in collected editions and ended up grabbing most everything up through Age of Apocalypse as my nostalgic enthusiasm had its way with me. Operation Zero Tolerance (the only remaining follow-up collected edition of the era) holds no appeal for me, but it seems Onslaught would serve as the definitive jumping-off point.

Oh Onslaught. It's a wonderful train wreck with some genuinely great moments. I don't think I could actually recommend the omnibus to someone but I have been waiting to get this in a hardcover collection for years. I think if you're on the fence you pick up the first tpb or read it on Marvel Unlimited first.

[Mix_Masta_Micah]

There is also a Daredevil Epic Collection entitled Widow's Kiss which has just been released. This is non-Nocenti and non-JRJR material, though. It covers the last 16 issues of the first Daredevil series i.e. #365-380 and also includes Daredevil #-1 and the Daredevil/Deadpool Annual '97.



Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head with regards Al Williamson being the inker. I believe JRJR was at his peak with Man Without Fear where of course Williamson was also the inker. Apart from some of his Daredevil stuff, I never could take to his other work.

Thanks fellas....if only JRJR was always this stellar. While I do think the inks have a lot to do with it, I still liked his pencils in his Spider-Man (with Mackie or JMS) and his Wolverine run with Millar. I just feel like he's lost interest.

[TomSlick]

Thanks fellas....if only JRJR was always this stellar. While I do think the inks have a lot to do with it, I still liked his pencils in his Spider-Man (with Mackie or JMS) and his Wolverine run with Millar. I just feel like he's lost interest.

If you want to waste your money on the shittiest era of Daredevil, then by all means go ahead and buy anything by Nocenti.

It is the turd in the toilet bowl - worse than Fall From Grace, worse than Shadowland.

There's my ramble for the day.

[Peter Parker]

If you want to waste your money on the shittiest era of Daredevil, then by all means go ahead and buy anything by Nocenti.

It is the turd in the toilet bowl - worse than Fall From Grace, worse than Shadowland.

There's my ramble for the day.

Worse than Fall From Grace? Unpossible!

[Rich]

Yeah I'm currently reading the Fall From Grace Epic and it is BAD.

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

These are good stories, mostly written by Joe Kelly. The real draw is Gene Colan returning as artist during Kelly's run. There's also the final issue of DD, vol 1, written by Chichester and drawn by the always underrated Lee Weeks.

I'm also a fan of Weeks, especially his Daredevil work in the Dark Nights collection.

It took me a while to appreciate Gene Colan's work as I wasn't initially keen on him. He was definitely different and I would even say ahead of the many "static" Marvel artists at the time he started working on Daredevil.

[Dr. Jay]

Expensive week for me and besides the Luke Cage masterworks, can't say I super excited about any of Marvel's hardcover products. The first appearance book was okay when it was a series of trades, but putting all that isolated stuff in an omnibus is just asking for failure. The Powers omni is probably a good product, but I already have the oversized hardbacks. The Ultimate omnibus is okay in theory, but the first storyline of all the ultimate books---how does that even work with the Ultimates---the storyline was the entire twelve issues. Marvel is really testing their omnibus buyers when they should be nurturing us and hope that we grow.

I understand the criticism that you should only buy what you like, but I think that misses the collector mentality somewhat. I COLLECT omnibuses. It has nothing to do with story. For me they are like a series of souvenir plates or a card set. You try to get them all.


Something I want to throw out there and see if anyone picks up either in agreement or disagreement--at a certain point from a collectability standpoint[---wouldn't it be more worthwhile if there wasnt' anymore new omnibuses. The limited number of the preexisting ones would make their value go way up. In ten years well preserved omnibuses could be very valuable. Is the omnibus ultimately for the collector or the reader? (I don't think they read very comfortably at all)

[Dougtron]

Expensive week for me and besides the Luke Cage masterworks, can't say I super excited about any of Marvel's hardcover products. The first appearance book was okay when it was a series of trades, but putting all that isolated stuff in an omnibus is just asking for failure. The Powers omni is probably a good product, but I already have the oversized hardbacks. The Ultimate omnibus is okay in theory, but the first storyline of all the ultimate books---how does that even work with the Ultimates---the storyline was the entire twelve issues. Marvel is really testing their omnibus buyers when they should be nurturing us and hope that we grow.

I understand the criticism that you should only buy what you like, but I think that misses the collector mentality somewhat. I COLLECT omnibuses. It has nothing to do with story. For me they are like a series of souvenir plates or a card set. You try to get them all.


Something I want to throw out there and see if anyone picks up either in agreement or disagreement--at a certain point from a collectability standpoint[---wouldn't it be more worthwhile if there wasnt' anymore new omnibuses. The limited number of the preexisting ones would make their value go way up. In ten years well preserved omnibuses could be very valuable. Is the omnibus ultimately for the collector or the reader? (I don't think they read very comfortably at all)

For myself they are definitely for reading. I don't really see myself ever purchasing an Omni that I didn't plan on reading or for material that I didn't enjoy. And while they are starting get more expensive they are often times still cheaper than picking up older out of print trades or hardcovers. So they are great for people just getting into comics or those who missed out on older editions.

[DrGregatron]

If you want to waste your money on the shittiest era of Daredevil, then by all means go ahead and buy anything by Nocenti.

It is the turd in the toilet bowl - worse than Fall From Grace, worse than Shadowland.

There's my ramble for the day.

I find both Nocenti and Louise Simonson's 80s Marvel work to be terribly dull. I'd guess their later work is just as blah but I've purposely stayed away from it, so I don't know?