Marvel Pocket Books

[MacNimon]

Has anyone bought any of Panini's reprint range of Marvel Pocket Books? This range has been expanding in recent years and each volume is great value for money, always under a fiver for at least 160 full colour pages. The price of the most recent releases may possibly be slightly more expensive now due to inflation, but still cheaper online. For anyone who is interested in checking out some 60s-80s superhero history, I can highly recommend this line.

I found this complete list of titles on Amazon, and in future posts will post the covers and details of their contents of as many as possible along with my thoughts on those I've already got myself.

But to kick things off, here's the list...

Marvel Pocket Books

X-Men: Second Genesis Giant Sized X-Men #1 & The Uncanny X-Men #94-103
X-Men: Magneto Triumphant The Uncanny X-Men # 104-117
X-Men: Wanted Wolverine: Dead or Alive The Uncanny X-Men #118-124 & Annual 3
X-Men: Dark Pheonix The Uncanny X-Men #125-137
X-Men: Days Of Future Past The Uncanny X-Men #138-143 & Annual 4
X-Men: Rogue Storm The Uncanny X-Men #144-150
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Uncanny X-Men 151-153, Uncanny X-Men Annual 5 and Marvel Graphic Novel 5 - God Loves, Man Kills
X-Men: Night Screams The Uncanny X-Men #154-161
X-Men: Beyond the Farthest Star The Uncanny X-Men #162-168
X-Men: Scarlet In Glory The Uncanny X-Men #169-175
X-Men: Blood Feud The Uncanny X-Men #176-179, Annual #6 & New Mutants #13-14
X-Men: Love and Madness The Uncanny X-Men #180-184 & New Mutants #15-17
X-Men: Legacy of the Lost The Uncanny X-Men #185-191
Hulk: The Coming Of Hulk The Incredible Hulk #1-6
The Incredible Hulk: The Monster Unleashed Tales To Astonish #101 & Incredible Hulk #102-108
The Incredible Hulk: World's End Incredible Hulk #109-117
Fantastic Four: The Coming of Galactus Fantastic Four #44-51 & Annual #3
Fantastic Four: Doomsday Fantastic Four #52-60
Fantastic Four: Where Stalks The Sandman Fantastic Four #61-67 & Annual #4
Fantastic Four: The Flames of Battle Fantastic Four #68-73 & Annual #5
Spider-Man: The End of the Green Goblin The Amazing Spider-Man #39-46
Spider-Man: Wings of the Vulture The Amazing Spider-Man #47-52 & Annual #4
Spider-Man: To Kill A Spider-Man The Amazing Spider-Man #53-61
Spider-Man: The Madness of Mysterio The Amazing Spider-Man #62-67 & Annual 2 & 5
Spider-Man To Crush A Kingpin The Amazing Spider-Man #68-77
Spider-Man: Night of The Prowler The Amazing Spider-Man #78-85
Spider-Man: The Death of Captain Stacy The Amazing Spider-Man #86-93
Amazing Spider-Man: In The Grip of the Goblin The Amazing Spider-Man #94-102
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Spider-Slayer The Amazing Spider-Man #103-111
The Amazing Spider-Man: Countdown to Chaos The Amazing Spider-Man #112-120
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Night Gwen Stacy Died The Amazing Spider-Man #121-128 & Marvel Team-Up #15
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Punisher Strikes Back The Amazing Spider-Man #129-135, Marvel Team Up #22 & Giant Size Spider-Man and Dracula #1
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Green Goblin Lives Again The Amazing Spider-Man #136-142, What If? #1 & Giant Size Spider-Man #4
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Delusion Conspiracy The Amazing Spider-Man #143-150 & Giant Sized Spider-Man #5
The Amazing Spider-Man: Shattered by the Shocker
The Invincible Iron Man: The Tragedy and the Triumph Tales Of Suspense 91-99, Iron Man/Submariner 1 & Iron Man 1-4
The Invincible Iron Man: Unmasked Iron Man 5-14
The Invincible Iron Man: Demon In A Bottle Invincible Iron Man #120-129
Captain America: Blood on the Moors #247-255
Silver Surfer: Origins Silver Surfer #1-5
Venom: Birth of a Monster Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110 & The Amazing Spider-Man #298-300
Wolverine: First Class - The Rookie Wolverine First Class #1-8
Wolverine: First Class - Leader of the Pack Wolverine First Class #9-16
Avengers: Bride of Ulton
X-Men Hidden Years: The Ghost and the Darkness X-Men: The Hidden Years #1-7
X-Men Hidden Years: Destroy All Mutants
Thor: Son of Asgard - The Warriors Teen Thor: Son of Asgard #1-6
Thor: Son Of Asgard - Worthy Thor: Son of Asgard

[MacNimon]

Where to start, though, that's the question...in the order that the books were released, or chronological order? Or character by character? Or just totally at random?

I think we'll look at these a series at a time...I'll start us off with Spider-Man. I'm actually rather surprised that they didn't start these off at the beginning with the classic Stan Lee-Steve Ditko run, but I suppose those issues have been reprinted so many times over the years that they decided to go with the less-reprinted John Romita era. I've got to admit that this isn't my favourite Spidey era, if I'm reading Stan Lee-scripted Spidey it has to be drawn by Ditko. I love John Romita's artwork in these issues, and Stan has great ideas and storylines but I can't get into his scripting as well as I could in his early issues. It may seem like sacrilege to say it, but I just feel nowadays that the magic was gone by this point, although there were some memorable moments and have no problem with the storylines themselves, it's more Lee's actual dialogue. From a personal point of view though, looking back over these it was really once other writers started taking over that I really enjoyed the series again.

However the great artwork alone makes these volumes a must buy...while I don't get the same enjoyment reading these particular issues that I once did, I never get fed up looking at John Romita (Snr)'s great artwork. One of the greatest Spider-Man artists ever.

The first volume is End Of The Green Goblin, which reprints Amazing Spider-Man 39-46, originally published August 1966 – March 1967

Wings Of The Vulture reprints Amazing Spider-Man 47-52 & Amazing Spider-Man Annual 4, from April – September 1967

To Kill A Spider-Man reprints Amazing Spider-Man 53-61, from October 1967 – June 1968

Madness Of Mysterio reprints Amazing Spider-Man 62-67 from July – December 1968, & Amazing Spider-Man Annuals 2 & 5 (1965 & 1968)

Like I said before, these are great value for money and I can highly recommend them as a cheap way of getting a hold of some classic early issues. More to come!

[MacNimon]

To Crush The Kingpin reprints Amazing Spider-Man 68-77, from January – October 1969

Some great artists on show here...not only Romita, but Big John Buscema and Jim Mooney as well! Great stuff!

Night Of The Prowler Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man 78-85 from November 1969 – June 1970

The Death Of Captain Stacy Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man 86-93 from July 1970 – February 1971. Now this is one I remember well from way back, While I said in an above post that I wasn't quite so keen on Stan's work from this period (I think he had probably stretched himself too thin writing too many titles - Fantastic Four and Avengers were his strong points at this time imo) he still managed to come up with great storylines. I don't have any of the volumes in this post yet but I'll have to complete the set ASAP! I see that Gil Kane's name is appearing as artist now, he was never the same standard as his predecessors but he put in a decent stint.

In The Grip Of The Goblin Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man 94-102 from March – November 1971

The Spider Slayer Reprints Amazing Spider-Man 103-111 From December 1971 – August 1972

I see Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway's names appearing on the covers now. I really enjoyed Conways stint on the series, and am now looking forward to reading it again.

I'll bring the Spider-Man series up-to-date tomorrow, looking at the most recent releases.

[MacNimon]

Countdown To Chaos!

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man 112-120, originally published September 1972 – May 1973

The Night Gwen Stacy Died
Reprints Amazing Spider-Man 121-128, and Marvel Team-Up 15 from June 1973 – January 1974

Written by Gerry Conway and art by Gil Kane, this is one of those classic storylines which you simply never forget...it was almost 30 years ago when I read this for the first time and the image of the Green Goblin throwing Peter's girlfriend Gwen Stacey off the bridge to her death remains crystal clear in my memory to this day. It's just one of those iconic moments in comics history, isn't it? Classic stuff.

The Punisher Strikes Twice
Reprints Amazing Spider-Man 129-135, Giant-Size Spider-Man 1 and Marvel Team-Up 22 originally published between February – August 1974

Featuring the first appearance of the Punisher, who would go on to become one of the most popular Marvel characters ever...

And finally, the most recent edition...
The Green Goblin Lives Again


which reprints Amazing Spider-Man 136-142 and Giant-Size Spider-Man 4 from September 1974 – April 1975, plus What If? #1 from February 1977.

That's us up to date with Spider-Man now. New volumes are released roughly every six months or so, so I'll update the list as they're released.

[llllllll]

Having read some of those Punisher stories, I'm actually quite tempted to get some of those early Spiderman comics. Of those above the Mystrio one appeals most.