All New Marvel Collected Editions

[MatchstickJohnny]

Choose your Era

[MatchstickJohnny]

So I decided to dip back into Marvel CE's with the "Epic Collection", a line I have been intrigued by. I had been collecting the Essentials last going off, and I recently decided that I had to majorly downsize my collection to just one shelf, and one short box.

So I have started over. I picked up "Powerman/Iron fist", and just got "Avengers: Behold...the Vision". I just love the format, though I am worried that key runs will take a long time to come out. For example, how Fantastic Four "The Coming of Galactus" isn't out yet is beyond me. That volume would have the legendary 3-issue run, as well as the first Inhumans stories.

Anyway, so far, I really like the line, but I will be taking it slow, just buying as I read.

Sounds like a solid plan. Essentials get the job done...reading. I've jumped into UXM Essentials as if I had a long or short box of UXM comics and jump around to certain stories that look good. Black and white format is ok with me. As many have said, Wordy read with Claremont writing. Makes me sleepy. I read at night.. but you have the option to read a story about the Savage Land, Sentinels, Outer Space and Magneto before reading Giant Size X-Men. um, yea Essentials get the job done alright.

I am hoping for more Fantastic Four Silver in any form too.

I like the Epic line too. I feel with the older stuff you can jump in anywhere and try to figure it out.
Thst's the fun of reading comics right?

[Hellboydce]

I would just cancel the Civil war set and just buy more usagi and Buffy

you took the words right out of my mouth

i thought Civil War was supposed to be pretty good?

[Taral-DLOS]

So I'm about to read both my Inhumans: Origin of the Inhumans TPB and my Silver Surfer Epic Collection: When Calls Galactus. Both of these include fractions of many early Fantastic Four issues (i.e. the first half of FF48 is in the Inhumans TPB, and the second half is in the Silver Surfer Epic).

Do you recommend I read all of Inhumans, then all of Silver Surfer? Or should I read both simultaneously, switching from one to the other? Would there be enough context in one that improves the reading of the other?

[Balakin]

i thought Civil War was supposed to be pretty good?

the main event is not bad but do you need all the tie ins? Half of them is probably just stuff that happened with Marvel characters during the event. I'm sure there are stuff in Iron man or Spider-man or something that informs the mains event but the main mini stands on its own.

[mtop2036]

i thought Civil War was supposed to be pretty good?

I really liked the main event, only read the new avengers tie ins from the new avengers omni and they were ok. Like balakin said I think the more important tie ins would be spidey where he gets his new suit and the iron man and cap issues. Still I would get it, it is a heck of a lot of tie ins even if there not the best they will flesh out the story even more.

[Dayle88]

The most important tie in isn't even a tie in (I'm pretty sure, it might be) but in Spider-man you see Tony fighting the act in the court taking Peter along so he can learn how things work and support Tony. Then once they pass the law and there is nothing Tony can do he rushes out and tells Pete that they have to get in front and control it as much as they can to try and stop what Tony and Reed go and do anyway.

It's the most in character and informative thing leading to the main event. It's part of the reason why I was disappointed in the last half of the main book. If it had more depth and more common sense choices for the pro side it could of been a modern masterpiece. They decided to just make the pro side the villains through their actions.

[39steps]

indeed, how can this be the aoa reprint? The publication date is 4/19 (4/5 for direct market).

https://www.hachettebookgroup.biz/ti...9780785195092/

he's a time traveler!!!

Get him!

[mike1981]

i thought Civil War was supposed to be pretty good?

I've posted my thoughts about Civil War before, but I'll restate them here (keep in mind that I lean heavy to superhero comics, and grew up on Marvel).

I got back into comics in undergrad right around the time Spider-Man hit theaters. This was the start of the NuMarvel age; with Bendis, Miller, Morrison, JMS, the Ultimate line, etc. all gaining traction. To me, this was the best Marvel has been since the 80's, maybe ever, and I think Civil War was the apex of that era and the culmination of the new style of comic writing.

Maybe it had the benefit of being the first "major" crossover, but it felt important and like the entire Marvel Universe not only was involved, but should have been involved. All the tie ins were good to great, and none of them felt like filler. There also wasn't the sense that all your favorite books were on gold while Civil War ran its course; it felt exciting to get a tie in issue of your favorite series.

Aside from that, these box sets are amazing from a production stand point. I have the Secret Wars set, and even if most of the contents aren't great, it's like having the entirety of Marvel in the 80's consolidated into one stately collection. I look at Civil War the same way; this set encompasses what Marvel was like in the Quesada years, only unlike Secret Wars most of the contents are good.

[manymade1]

I got back into comics in undergrad right around the time Spider-Man hit theaters. This was the start of the NuMarvel age; with Bendis, Miller, Morrison, JMS, the Ultimate line, etc. all gaining traction. To me, this was the best Marvel has been since the 80's, maybe ever, and I think Civil War was the apex of that era and the culmination of the new style of comic writing.

Maybe it had the benefit of being the first "major" crossover, but it felt important and like the entire Marvel Universe not only was involved, but should have been involved. All the tie ins were good to great, and none of them felt like filler. There also wasn't the sense that all your favorite books were on gold while Civil War ran its course; it felt exciting to get a tie in issue of your favorite series.

Agreed. Sadly though, Civil War I'd say was the start of Marvels downfall. After Civil War, that's when Marvel became to concerned with annual events (Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, etc.) that influenced every title. I think Civil War worked really well because it was different and cool. Marvel would've done so much better had they kept events of that caliber less frequently.

[SJNeal]

What are you picking up in the next few months? Much of what I named at the top?

For starters, you're not the only guy excited for the Force Works collection! I bought every issue of that series as it came out, and loved it. I never expected that material to see reprint, but after reading the Iron Man/War Machine: Hands of the Mandarin trade awhile back I thought it held up pretty well!

Checking my list, there's actually more upcoming DC books that I'm drooling over, but I just received Daredevil MMW Vol. 10 that I'm looking forward to, and the Epic Collections remain a highlight of the solicits for me each month!

[krisis]

The most important tie in isn't even a tie in (I'm pretty sure, it might be) but in Spider-man you see Tony fighting the act in the court taking Peter along so he can learn how things work and support Tony. Then once they pass the law and there is nothing Tony can do he rushes out and tells Pete that they have to get in front and control it as much as they can to try and stop what Tony and Reed go and do anyway.

It's the most in character and informative thing leading to the main event. It's part of the reason why I was disappointed in the last half of the main book. If it had more depth and more common sense choices for the pro side it could of been a modern masterpiece. They decided to just make the pro side the villains through their actions.

I'd agree with this assessment.

Civil War is one of those many events where the event itself is quite fractioned to read without any supporting material. Despite that, it's a compelling read (unlike, say, Secret Invasion, which barely makes sense without tie-ins). If you're going to choose what tie-ins are going to enhance your experience, Spider-Man makes Civil War so personal - it's a microcosm of the greater ideological conflict.

As for others? The Avengers and Cap stuff has some of the biggest plot points and fills out the story beats. Fantastic Four covers a similar ground to Spider-Man, but I just don't feel the book was as good. Black Panther adds the perspective of both an outsider and of statescraft, and I enjoyed it for that. X-Men was inessential. Wolverine adds the "why did it start" intrigue, not the best story but an interesting layer.

Iron Man seems like it should have been very central - was it?

I've never read the more ground-level stuff, like Frontline and Underside, though I do have them. What happens there?

[krisis]

Did anyone else buy the recent Marvel UK Frontier Comics collection? It's so confusing to me that they released it, because there is zero demand and the back issues probably cost less to buy than the book did. Yet, I love these lost pockets of Marvel. Also, it gives me some small hope we could FINALLY get a collection of some of the better Marvel UK Material at some point, even if demand is low.

For starters, you're not the only guy excited for the Force Works collection! I bought every issue of that series as it came out, and loved it. I never expected that material to see reprint, but after reading the Iron Man/War Machine: Hands of the Mandarin trade awhile back I thought it held up pretty well!

Checking my list, there's actually more upcoming DC books that I'm drooling over, but I just received Daredevil MMW Vol. 10 that I'm looking forward to, and the Epic Collections remain a highlight of the solicits for me each month!

FORCE WORKS!!!!!! I don't know what it is about that book. I really loved that team of characters at the time. I love the queasy, heavy-lined, Jae-Lee esque artwork. I love that it was kind of posed as "Avengers does X-Force," but just like X-Force skewed quickly from "proactive means-justify-ends X-Men" I don't think Force Works totally lingered there.

I would be over the moon if Marvel revived it, which is my hope with the timing of this collection. Hell, it might be the only team name they HAVEN'T REVIVED.

[SJNeal]

FORCE WORKS!!!!!! I don't know what it is about that book. I really loved that team of characters at the time. I love the queasy, heavy-lined, Jae-Lee esque artwork. I love that it was kind of posed as "Avengers does X-Force," but just like X-Force skewed quickly from "proactive means-justify-ends X-Men" I don't think Force Works totally lingered there.

I would be over the moon if Marvel revived it, which is my hope with the timing of this collection. Hell, it might be the only team name they HAVEN'T REVIVED.

If memory serves, those first few issues were the best. I remember staring at preview pages and being blown away! These looked like my AWC favorites... but, like, waaay cooler!!! You even got some early Jim Cheung, which was a huge departure from Tom Tenney, but still excellent. And to be fair, they probably haven't revived the name because it was, and is, super cheesy.

Did you happen to pick up the recent Death of Mockingbird trade? It serves as a great prelude.

[Peter Parker]

Agreed. Sadly though, Civil War I'd say was the start of Marvels downfall. After Civil War, that's when Marvel became to concerned with annual events (Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, etc.) that influenced every title. I think Civil War worked really well because it was different and cool. Marvel would've done so much better had they kept events of that caliber less frequently.

I didn't mind the events though, it really seemed like there was a plan from Disassembled/Secret War up through Siege. Each event has something that clued us into or lead to the next which made for a very cohesive feeling universe. Things unraveled at Fear Itself and never really came back. I do consider that 2004-2010 period to be a very cohesive piece of storytelling.