I don’t own every Marvel comic ever made, but until recently, I thought I owned every Marvel comic I cared to. My childhood favorites were Captain America, Hulk and The Avengers, and by the time I left for college I had accumulated complete runs (counting reprints) of all three titles. Others, such as Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, I was still working on. Others still I never did quite complete. Most series I manage to acquire most of, starting with the early years and working forward, the recent years and working backward, and maintaining current issues going forward. Yet still to this day I’m missing large “middle chunks” of Iron Man, Thor and Daredevil. That’s where Masterworks, Essentials and Premiere Editions come in.
“Middle chunks” of Thor, in particular, have been well-represented in Marvel Premiere Editions. But today I want to talk about Iron Man, specifically the seventh Marvel Masterworks volume. Without being fueled by childhood nostalgia, for the most part, those middle chunks represented stories I didn’t particularly care to own, and for the most part I think I made the right decision. Read these excerpts from Gerry Conway’s introduction to the Iron Man volume under discussion: “In all honesty, folks, it’s a mess… I’m forced to admit, this is not our finest hour… So, give us all an ‘A’ for effort, though — again, in all honesty — our final grade for the course is probably, at best, a C+… The evidence of the present volume notwithstanding, I’ve always had a fondness for Old Shell-Head… I just wish we’d expressed that point better in the stories collected here.” Really makes you want to read ‘em, doesn’t it?
Still, these stories do have a certain something. A modern comic can never hope the replicate the storytelling of an earlier decade (and honestly, few try). However, I’m to the point at which I’ve decided I pretty mcuch prefer the comics of yesteryear (the superhero comics, anyway) to the comics of today. Re-reading old favorites is always enjoyable, but the problem is there are no new 1970s comics being produced. Or are there? Any old comic I’ve never read is new to me, and collections such as Marvel Masterworks Iron Man Vol. 7 do have a certain appeal. Finally, there are 14 issues in this collection, and even without a discount that comes to less money per issue than 14 new comics @ $3.99. And I enjoy them more.
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I started buying 60's reprints regularly around 1972, and new issues regularly around 1973. As a result, I, too, either was or am still (depending on the series) missing huge chunks between 1968-73.
I've managed to catch up with THE AVENGERS and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (via ESSENTIAL books). I did fill in the missing FANTASTIC FOUR and CAPTAIN AMERICA issues (by buying back issues, but this was in the late 70's!). And over the last 10 years, I even filled in a lot of missing SUB-MARINERs, of all things (all with back-issues, which tended to be really cheap). and about 10 years back I managed to get all the early (pre-Starlin) CAPTAIN MARVELs (from 3 different sources). But the rest? Still missing. (HULK, THOR, IRON MAN...)
Really makes me wonder why Marvel thinks I would want to pay $55 for stories the introduction basically admits are crap. Them's some mighty big cojones, right there. Sadly, I probably will eventually buy this as part of my SA Marvel Masterworks plan.
I'm glad I filled in all those gaping holes in my AVENGERS collection with ESSENTIAL books... and those were supposedly Roy Thomas' best work ever!!! (I have Vols.2-5)
I've covered the Silver Age with Essentials to the extent possible, but I have some logically-inexplicable desire to have all of the SA in 4-Color, Hardback form. I've been spottier on Essentials into the 70's mostly (like most people, I imagine) buying things for nostalgia value, or because they actually include material I've never read before.
The strange thing was, although I bought STACKS of back-issues in the late 70's (CHEAP!), and sometimes feel I wasted the 80's buying wayyyyyyyy too much new stuff (you look over some things and wonder, "WHAT was I thinking buying this?"), it was in the 90's I started buying FANTASTIC FOUR-- back issues-- usually 1 or 2 at a time, as they cost a lot more. (Though I never paid more than $20.00 for a Jack Kirby F.F., and usually a lot less.) It took a long time, but I filled in a PILE of missing issues... but mostly in the 2nd half (or last 1/3rd) of the run. Part of that was, I had most of the earlier ones as reprints. Mind you, some of the later ones I also had as reprints, and got the originals anyway. I only got reprints AFTER already having originals near the end, when the local supply of F.F. back-issues just totally dried up. I threw my hands up and got a couple of ESSENTIAL books, usually just for a handful of missing issues here and there. It was quite a day when I finally had EVERY Kirby F.F. in some form.
Had I been buying back issues online at the time, I might never have gotten those ESSENTIAL books.
I've also been working on THOR the same way, and when I had my last job, was really closing in on the last remaining missing ones that I'd never read. Unfortunately, since March, I've been searching for a new job... (dammit)
I've often referred to myself as a "bastard son of the first generation of the Marvel Age" because I read Spider-Man in Marvel Tales, Fantastic Four in Marvel Greatest Comics, Hulk/Subby in Marvel Superheroes, etc. I actually preferred the reprints to the then-current fare (which I didn't acquire until years later, in college).
DC Comics' Action #434 was my very first comic book/discovery of the genre, and the company will always be my primary favorite despite the fact that my preferences have evolved over the years since that issue was first released.
My very first Marvel Comic was Uncanny X-Men #137, an issue that speaks volumes unto itself with the sacrifice of Jean Grey, which was very powerful reading to an impressionable teenager way back when.
But when I think about what Marvel had been up until the early 1980s, my heart sinks to see the company in its present state after One More/Brand New Day, Civil War, multiple mutants, etc.
At the moment, Jonathan Hickman on the FF/Fantastic Four is the only regular title(s) I read. I still keep an eye on things and hope, (Mystery Men mini was good and Howard Chaykin's Avengers 1959 mini and the newUltimate Spiderman look promising) but am not holding my breath on a full return to the glory days the company enjoyed with Lee/Kirby, Wolfman, Perez, Wein, Claremont, Stern, Mantalo, Byrne, etc.
...There were kind of THREE " Marvel Comics Of The 70s " , it appears to me .
One was the " Silver Age hangover/run-down " as Stan wrote less and less , Martin Goodman left , Jack had been gone for years by then , and Marvel performed this successful fakeout that locked DC into the Bigger & Better financial debacle for most of a year , during which Marvel , FINALLY! , bypassed DC at #1.........
In the late 70's, I went after back-issues of SHIELD-- STRANGE TALES #135-168 and NICK FURY #1-15.
Now, I wish I'd gone all the way back to ST #101. I really enjoy the Johnny Storm Human Torch stories (they're fun!), and Ditko's Dr. Strange has become one of my most-re-read series ever (thanks to that 1st DS Masterworks volume).
Replies
I started buying 60's reprints regularly around 1972, and new issues regularly around 1973. As a result, I, too, either was or am still (depending on the series) missing huge chunks between 1968-73.
I've managed to catch up with THE AVENGERS and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (via ESSENTIAL books). I did fill in the missing FANTASTIC FOUR and CAPTAIN AMERICA issues (by buying back issues, but this was in the late 70's!). And over the last 10 years, I even filled in a lot of missing SUB-MARINERs, of all things (all with back-issues, which tended to be really cheap). and about 10 years back I managed to get all the early (pre-Starlin) CAPTAIN MARVELs (from 3 different sources). But the rest? Still missing. (HULK, THOR, IRON MAN...)
Really makes you want to read ‘em, doesn’t it?
Really makes me wonder why Marvel thinks I would want to pay $55 for stories the introduction basically admits are crap. Them's some mighty big cojones, right there. Sadly, I probably will eventually buy this as part of my SA Marvel Masterworks plan.
The strange thing was, although I bought STACKS of back-issues in the late 70's (CHEAP!), and sometimes feel I wasted the 80's buying wayyyyyyyy too much new stuff (you look over some things and wonder, "WHAT was I thinking buying this?"), it was in the 90's I started buying FANTASTIC FOUR-- back issues-- usually 1 or 2 at a time, as they cost a lot more. (Though I never paid more than $20.00 for a Jack Kirby F.F., and usually a lot less.) It took a long time, but I filled in a PILE of missing issues... but mostly in the 2nd half (or last 1/3rd) of the run. Part of that was, I had most of the earlier ones as reprints. Mind you, some of the later ones I also had as reprints, and got the originals anyway. I only got reprints AFTER already having originals near the end, when the local supply of F.F. back-issues just totally dried up. I threw my hands up and got a couple of ESSENTIAL books, usually just for a handful of missing issues here and there. It was quite a day when I finally had EVERY Kirby F.F. in some form.
Had I been buying back issues online at the time, I might never have gotten those ESSENTIAL books.
I've also been working on THOR the same way, and when I had my last job, was really closing in on the last remaining missing ones that I'd never read. Unfortunately, since March, I've been searching for a new job... (dammit)
DC Comics' Action #434 was my very first comic book/discovery of the genre, and the company will always be my primary favorite despite the fact that my preferences have evolved over the years since that issue was first released.
My very first Marvel Comic was Uncanny X-Men #137, an issue that speaks volumes unto itself with the sacrifice of Jean Grey, which was very powerful reading to an impressionable teenager way back when.
But when I think about what Marvel had been up until the early 1980s, my heart sinks to see the company in its present state after One More/Brand New Day, Civil War, multiple mutants, etc.
At the moment, Jonathan Hickman on the FF/Fantastic Four is the only regular title(s) I read. I still keep an eye on things and hope, (Mystery Men mini was good and Howard Chaykin's Avengers 1959 mini and the new Ultimate Spiderman look promising) but am not holding my breath on a full return to the glory days the company enjoyed with Lee/Kirby, Wolfman, Perez, Wein, Claremont, Stern, Mantalo, Byrne, etc.
...There were kind of THREE " Marvel Comics Of The 70s " , it appears to me .
One was the " Silver Age hangover/run-down " as Stan wrote less and less , Martin Goodman left , Jack had been gone for years by then , and Marvel performed this successful fakeout that locked DC into the Bigger & Better financial debacle for most of a year , during which Marvel , FINALLY! , bypassed DC at #1.........
In the late 70's, I went after back-issues of SHIELD-- STRANGE TALES #135-168 and NICK FURY #1-15.
Now, I wish I'd gone all the way back to ST #101. I really enjoy the Johnny Storm Human Torch stories (they're fun!), and Ditko's Dr. Strange has become one of my most-re-read series ever (thanks to that 1st DS Masterworks volume).
"I used to love the Marvel Team Up stories. I came into them just as he was going forward in time to encounter Killraven and Deathlok."
Every think there was a strange parallel between DC and Marvel there...? ("before" and "after")
OMAC -- Deathlok
Kamandi -- Killraven
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