Spiderman, Avengers, or Xmen masterworks?

[TheIronBot]

I love old comic books. Modern ones are... meh, but old ones are awesome! The art, the story, AGH! ITS SO GOOD! Hrm Hrm, anyway, I want to start off on a series of one of the Marvel Masterworks (collections of old comics). Should I start on Xmen, Spiderman, or Avengers? I can't decide, so I will let you guys help!

[Thor2014]

Fantastic Four.

[TheIronBot]

Fantastic Four.

I'm really not a big F4 fan. Im between Xmen and Avengers.

[The Kid]

Does X-men Masterworks cover only Lee/Kirby stuff? Because if so, I'd pass as the X-Men didn't become the X-Men till Claremont. If so, I'd go with Spider-Man as the Lee/Ditko run is still very solid today

[Abe]

If you don't know this site : http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/library.html , you should check it. You'll see the list of all the MMW published - and the ones to come.

If I were you I'd go with the FF ... or Spider Man! About the X-men the original series and the Claremont series are both collected.

Anyway some of the masterworks are hard to find, so when I started collecting old comics in modern reprints I had to buy some of them in the Omnibus format. The Ditko-Lee run of ASM is collected in one omnibus. They also published the following volume with Romita Sr and in a few weeks the third volume is out.

The good thing with a Omnibus edition is that they also collect the letters pages, which is really cool!

The Epic collections are also very nice, and cheaper, and you will find the complete Lee/Ditko run of ASM, the first volume of Claremont's X-Men - along with the first volumes of the original run. The first volumes of the Avengers series are also published.

I personally doesn't really care about the format, so I have a mix on my shelves : Omnibus, MMW, Epic, TPB... It allowed me to get :

For ASM : Omnibus vol 1, vol 2, (soon!!!) vol 3 and the very recent Epic collection vol.7 : which means all ASM from the very beginning to the death of Gwen Stacy. ASM 1-123 and a few other stuffs (annuals, crossovers...) (and MMW 18 : ASM 181-192, planning to buy the next volume which will be published in June because of the Black Cat, and perhaps the first volume of Spectacular Spider Man scheduled for July)

For the FF : Omnibus vol 1, 2 & 3 : almost all the Lee/Kirby run... Absolutely needed!!! and MMW vol 10 to complete it. FF 1-104 and a few other stuffs (And the two Omnibus collecting all the Byrne (as a writer) run)

For Daredevil : Omnibus vol 1, Epic collection vol. 3, then MMW 7,8,9,10 & 11. Daredevil 1-119 and a few other stuffs (And the Omnibus "Daredevil: Frank Miller & Klaus Janson Vol. 1". I will probably buy the next MMW to fill the gap... But it will take years to see them published!)

For Nick Fury : S.H.I.E.L.D. by Lee & Kirby: The Complete Collection TPB - S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko : The Complete Collection TPB - (both bought before the Omnibus was published) and MMW vol. 3. Strange Tales 135-168, Nick Fury agent of SHIELD 1-16 and a few other stuffs.

Because some of the MMW are out of print and very hard to find I have holes in my collection of Dr Strange (Omnibus + MMW. Vol 3 missing), and it was also difficult to get all the Claremont X-men from the beginning to Days of Future past. I was lucky finding some MMW out of print hidden in one of my LCS! The two Omnibus published were out of print at that time. A recent Epic collection allowed me to get the beginning of the series.

Of course I hope that future Epic Collection volumes will allow to fill the holes in my FF collection and in my ASM collection... I hope also that someday all the Claremont run of the X-men will be published in Epic volumes...

I'm not sure that it helped.... I should probably subscribe to Marvel Unlimited, but I'm not able to read digital comics - it's definitively not the same thing.

Good luck with your collection, TheIronBot! Old comics are incredible!!!

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

I love old comic books. Modern ones are... meh, but old ones are awesome! The art, the story, AGH! ITS SO GOOD! Hrm Hrm, anyway, I want to start off on a series of one of the Marvel Masterworks (collections of old comics). Should I start on Xmen, Spiderman, or Avengers? I can't decide, so I will let you guys help!

I personally would try and go with the Omnibuses as they give you more bang for your buck and give you all that glorious "old" art in an oversized format. The Amazing Spider-man ones are still available and Vol. 3 is being released in a couple of weeks.

If you're set on the Marvel Masterworks and not swimming in money as to get more than one title at once, I personally would go with Spider-man. And make sure you pick up the hardcovers not the trade paperbacks as the latter were discontinued and the former are better quality. Please note that some of the earlier MMWs are already out of print and going for ridiculous prices so unless you have a cheap source, you may have to go the Omnibus and Epic Collection route to supplement your collection.

As Abe mentioned, try the Marvel Masterworks Forum. They are mad about Masterworks and old comics. Btw, there's a Monsterbus Vol. 1 out now featuring all the old monster strips by Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber and Stan Lee. It may be of interest to you. I'd also recommend the Daredevil Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 recently released - one of my favourites.

[TheIronBot]

If by this you mean issue 94 where Wolverine came in, then yes, it covers that.

[TheIronBot]

I personally would try and go with the Omnibuses as they give you more bang for your buck and give you all that glorious "old" art in an oversized format. The Amazing Spider-man ones are still available and Vol. 3 is being released in a couple of weeks.

If you're set on the Marvel Masterworks and not swimming in money as to get more than one title at once, I personally would go with Spider-man. And make sure you pick up the hardcovers not the trade paperbacks as the latter were discontinued and the former are better quality. Please note that some of the earlier MMWs are already out of print and going for ridiculous prices so unless you have a cheap source, you may have to go the Omnibus and Epic Collection route to supplement your collection.

As Abe mentioned, try the Marvel Masterworks Forum. They are mad about Masterworks and old comics. Btw, there's a Monsterbus Vol. 1 out now featuring all the old monster strips by Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber and Stan Lee. It may be of interest to you. I'd also recommend the Daredevil Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 recently released - one of my favourites.

I was actually thinking about getting the Omnibus, but its $100!

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

I was actually thinking about getting the Omnibus, but its $100!

Omnibuses are half price or 42% discount on www.instocktrades.com
They're the best online Comics retailer in the US, you can't get better.

[Abe]

I was actually thinking about getting the Omnibus, but its $100!

I know... ... But MMW are worst : 75 dollars each... And 35 for one Epic Collection. If you compare, for the Ditko/Lee run of ASM you can chose two Epic TPB for 75 dollars or the Omnibus oversized with fan letters for 100 dollars or - if you bought them at the time - four HC MMW for 300 dollars... Omnibus are in fact not that much expensive, but Marvel is never cheap... Too bad..

I'm sure that you can find good deals on line btw, for the Omnibus when they are still available (ASM) as for the Epic Collection or many of the MMW. Others than me could give you good advice!

[Balakin]

I was actually thinking about getting the Omnibus, but its $100!

as others said if you are in the US you are blessed with IST but even if you are in Europe you can still find it cheaper than $100. Also I think it is Free Comic Book Day today so if you go online hunting you can probably find some good deals. In terms of price+quantity+quality I would most definitely recommend omnibuses, even with the decline in quality recent years they are still quite good (especially if you can't compare them with older omnibuses). The Epic line is great if you want an affordable way to collect the books, you get big chunks for a good price but the Masterworks are definitely the most expensive way after the original issues (even the tpb masterworks cost more than the Epics but you get thicker, glossy paper. Epics are good quality, they don't use pulp paper but it's not exactly archival quality either).

[zevious zoquis]

Of the 3 titles you list, I'd go with The Avengers personally. Spiderman is good, but I like the cast of characters in The Avengers. Really though, give some consideration to The Fantastic Four. I'm not a huge FF fan myself, but there is definitely something about that title...really foundational Marvel material. Also, I might suggest Thor as well...

I've become a real fan of the Epic Collection format for SA material recently. The books aren't as nice in a physical sense as the Omnis, but you get a big chunk of comic goodness in each book and they are fantastic for reading in bed! I keep a stack of Epics on the night stand and just grab whatever happens to appeal to me when I get in bed at night and read a couple issues.

[DrGregatron]

You can't go wrong with "Uncanny" X-Men MMWs, but good luck finding them at a reasonable price! If you just want to read and don't care about the quality of the book, an omnibus or Epic would be cheaper. Even cheaper yet would be a subscription to Marvel Unlimited and you can rest assured it won't fall apart while reading it like some Marvel books will.

[Judge Dredd]

Uncanny and Spider-Man are great, but that early Fantastic Four run is just amazing.

[Ishmael]

Put me down as another in the Fantastic Four camp. Never been a fan, but the Kirby/Lee run is undoubtedly the best of the Marvel Silver Age. It's simply amazing.

Otherwise, I'd say Amazing Spider-man (although having now read all the X-men masterworks that have been printed, I'm a bit more partial to the original X-men than the new version. Claremont's writing becomes unbearable at times).