Marvel Collected Editions

[Bri]

I agree with this completely.

Marvel's tailspin in the 90s was the reason I stopped buying comic books and actually going downtown to my LCS every week.

Even then, here and there, this feeling of cynicism began creeping in: Marvel kept

-releasing #1s (How many versions of X-Men #1 were there?)
-crossing characters over into other books to a ridiculous degree (Bagley's run on ASM is a good example of this)
-overexposing characters -- some of which weren't even that good (e.g., Carnage)
-using stupid gimmicks that masked the poor quality of the stories (gatefold covers, foil embossed cover, trading card w/ issue in plastic bag, glow-in-dark cover)

and so on.

I agree with you, and it seems to me that aside from the cover gimmicks Marvel and DC are doing a lot of the same things now. We may not have gimmick covers (except for DC, every Sept.) But now we have the plague of Aternate covers. It seems like no publisher can have one title with one cover. Its absurd. Even more absurd is $125 omnis with 2 covers. But I think complaining about things from 20 years ago is useless. We should focus on the comics we want to see collected, not the Crap. If you want to complain about what is happening now (re-launching titles every 6-12 months, $4 for 20 pages) I am happy to join in.

[legion_quest]

I don't care how much other people take the mickey, Dane was bad ass with his lightsaber and jacket!

He was. Then they sent him to the Ultraverse and he never recovered

[Jim Noble]

He was. Then they sent him to the Ultraverse and he never recovered

I never read his Heroes for Hire appearances, but he got made to look like a wazzock in Jerry Ordways fill in Avengers vol 3 issues too :-(

Dane don't get the respect he deserves! While we're on the subject, where's my CB&MI13 OHC?!

[Jack B. Quick]

I don't know if the Star Wars Omnibus HC variant cover by Hildebrant has been posted yet, anyway here it is.

SWHildebrandt.jpg

[DarkBeast]

Problem with 90s comics is that for every masterpiece you get three unreadable turds. It might be worst good:bad ratio in comics history.

Totally agree.

...And yet I still think the '90s might have had more 'masterpieces' than any other decade.

The five or so best books from the '80s were better than the five or so best books from the '90s, but if you go a bit deeper and start doing a top 20 or whatever, I think the '90s might have the best top 20 of any decade.

Off the top of my head:

Absolute classics: Astro City (when it was really really great), Bone, Flex Mentallo, From Hell, Invisibles, Kingdom Come, Marvels, Preacher, Sandman, Starman.
Strong second tier: Authority, Waid's Flash, Morrison's Doom Patrol, Morrison's JLA, PAD's Hulk, PAD's X-Factor, Sin City, Moore's Supreme, Strangers in Paradise, Untold Tales of Spider-Man...

I'm sure some people would throw in Age of Apocalypse and Thunderbolts, but I wouldn't put them that high.

To an extent all of this is subjective. Personally I don't think Waid's Cap for example would even be worth mentioning. It's just another "good" run and it only stands out because of the rest of what Marvel was doing then tended to be so bad.

And on the other hand, sometimes I think that Alan Moore's Supreme is the best series of the '90s. And I don't know that anyone else on earth would dare rank it so high.

But there are at least "agreed upon classics", and there may be more of those from the '90s than from any other decade.

And I'm not even a huge fan of some of the stuff above, but it's just obviously good or important, so I listed it.

When you're a very Marvel-centric reader, though, then, yeah, the '90s sucked and the ratio of classic-vs-crap was particularly high for Marvel. (Even Image had Astro City and Bone and Moore's Supreme.)

I remember DrGregatron and someone else I can't remember say it was bad. But most of us said it was pretty good though the quality dropped during AvX anf it never became as good as before AvX after that

I think the AvX tie-in issues of WatXM were really good, better than any other comics with AvX on the cover. For me the quality of the series cratered after AvX, then it finally came back a bit towards the end. For the first 20 issues or so, WatXM was very good; it's just that the second 20 issues or so was mostly bad imo.

[TomSlick]

Totally agree.

...And yet I still think the '90s might have had more 'masterpieces' than any other decade.

The five or so best books from the '80s were better than the five or so best books from the '90s, but if you go a bit deeper and start doing a top 20 or whatever, I think the '90s might have the best top 20 of any decade.

Off the top of my head:

Absolute classics: Astro City (when it was really really great), Bone, Flex Mentallo, From Hell, Invisibles, Kingdom Come, Marvels, Preacher, Sandman, Starman.
Strong second tier: Authority, Waid's Flash, Morrison's Doom Patrol, Morrison's JLA, PAD's Hulk, PAD's X-Factor, Sin City, Moore's Supreme, Strangers in Paradise, Untold Tales of Spider-Man...

.

I'm pretty sure we're talking about 90s Marvel - not 90s everyone - which means you've got four "masterpieces."
Although I agree with a lot of your picks, I respectfully disagree that the 90s had more "masterpieces," Marvel or otherwise.

[legion_quest]

I never read his Heroes for Hire appearances, but he got made to look like a wazzock in Jerry Ordways fill in Avengers vol 3 issues too :-(

Dane don't get the respect he deserves! While we're on the subject, where's my CB&MI13 OHC?!

That series is the perfect length for an OHC too. Plus a female Muslim character, they're all the rage now!

Heh, 'wazzock'

[Rimmer]

I never read his Heroes for Hire appearances, but he got made to look like a wazzock in Jerry Ordways fill in Avengers vol 3 issues too :-(

Dane don't get the respect he deserves! While we're on the subject, where's my CB&MI13 OHC?!

I really wish a new writer would grab onto Dane and utilize him. He was my ultimate favorite Avengers when I was a kid (thank you, Mr. Stern!) and that's saying a lot when you're a B-lister on a team of A-listers!
Here's hoping Dane gets more love in the future...

[aquitaine]

I remember DrGregatron and someone else I can't remember say it was bad. But most of us said it was pretty good though the quality dropped during AvX anf it never became as good as before AvX after that

Greg hates anything that came out after the 80s. Wolverine and the X-Men was an awesome comic.

[DrGregatron]

Greg hates anything that came out after the 80s. Wolverine and the X-Men was an awesome comic.

Not true. I give praise where praise is due. I just know WATXM is far from awesome--it's future quarter-bin filler. I've heaped praise on recent books like Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, X-Statix, Fear Agent and Y-The Last Man which actually deserve praise for great art and story.

[aquitaine]

Not true. I give praise where praise is due. I just know WATXM is far from awesome--it's future quarter-bin filler.

Seriously though, you've outright said that you hate comics after the 80's. Few exceptions notwithstanding, you're not exactly the best judge of modern comics quality when you routinely express absolute disdain for the vast majority of them. WatXM was a fantastic and fun run that harkened back to the days when comics were fun for fun's sake. It got great reviews and sold exceptionally well. Calling it 'quarter bin filler' puts you squarely in the minority on this one. This thread in particular has a vocal minority that hates everything or most of everything that Aaron writes, but clearly the majority of comics buyers disagree as his books still sell well, rate well, and get oversized treatment.

[kodave]

I wanna see some best of collections for people like Elektra, Black Widow, Doctor Strange.

There are very few genuinely good Black Widow -centric/solo stories. And even fewer where the art would necessarily justify an OSHC format. Rucka's "Breakdown" is probably the best Black Widow story I've read, followed by Macchio's "I Got the Yo-Yo, You Got the String. And both of those were just a fraction of the trades they were contained in. The art in those stories is pretty amazing as well. I've heard the new volume written by Edmunson might be good (the Noto art looks great), but I have not read that yet. But then again I also heard that Lui then Morgan's volumes were supposed to be genuinely good and those were some of the most overrated stories I've ever read. The only Black Widow collected edition / prestige format books that I haven't read are "Fury / Black Widow: Death Duty," but I suspect it's probably not good either, and "Black Widow and the Marvel Girls," but I don't think I'm missing anything there. Out of the 11 Black Widow trades I have read, there's not much redeeming material for the character. She's probably been written best as a supporting character in Daredevil / Captain America / Winter Soldier / Avengers over the years, which is kind of sad in and of itself.

I think Miller's Eletra Omnibus/OSHC is probably the best you're going to find for the character as well. After all, what's left for her outside of that collection that's genuinely any good? The 90s Milligan/Hama run doesn't seem to be particularly lauded and has never been collected to my knowledge. The Marvel Knights Bendis/Rucka/Rodi series didn't seem to do more than a mediocre job with the character when they wrote her solo. "Elektra: The Hand" is more abut the Hand than Elektra. Maybe Zeb Wells' "Dark Reign: Elektra" mini series is better? The non-traditional art of "Elektra: Glimpse & Echo" looks cool but that never even received a collected edition. Blackman's current Elektra series seems to be underwhelming the reviewers as well, despite great art.

Strange has enough well written material with art that would be worthy of an OSHC or an Omnibus.

It's too bad Marvel's key female characters like Black Widow and Elektra don't have better written solo stories though. Or the ones that do can't generate the sales to stay alive. Hopefully Soule's She-Hulk, DeConnick's Captain Marvel and Wilson's Ms. Marvel continue to buck that trend for the current period.

[Emerald_616]

I agree. I wanna see some best of collections for people like Elektra, Black Widow, Doctor Strange.

Since they're doing collections of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver solo appearance around the release of Age of Ultron next year, I imagine we'll get the latter two if/when they have solo films and/or future Avengers films coming out.

[GetEveryone]

Blackman's current Elektra series seems to be underwhelming the reviewers as well, despite great art.

That's not particularly accurate.

http://comicbookroundup.com/comic-bo...elektra-(2014)

As far as I'm concerned it's a really fun book.

[Roland1580]

Oh yeah, Amazon just charged 330 dollars from my card for Famous Firsts slipcase set. And it's only $30 for international shipping! I like this deal and can't wait for my copy.