WASHINGTON: With the focus of catering classic material to audiences of all ages in a new format, Marvel Entertainment is expanding its legacy collected editions line, ‘Marvel Masterworks’ as ‘Mighty Marvel Masterworks’.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, each volume of the initial ‘Marvel Masterworks’ releases will collect ten issues of the series it is focusing on. As opposed to the original hardcover (6.625 x 10.25″) format these new releases will be in a smaller (6 x 9″) paperback format. Additionally, each volume will be released in two versions, one featuring new cover artwork from Michael Cho, and an “exclusive comic book shop variant,” which will re-use artwork from the original run of the collected comic series.
The initial three releases as part of the ‘Mighty Marvel Masterworks’ line will be:
1. ‘Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man — With Great Power’: This issue will collect Vol. 1, Nos. 1-10 from ‘Amazing Spider-Man’, as well as material from ‘Amazing Fantasy’ No. 15, Spidey’s first appearance.
2. ‘Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Vol. 1’: It will be collecting the first ten issues of the 1961 series.
3. ‘Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men — The Strangest Super-Heroes of All’: This will collect the first ten issues of the original 1963 ‘X-Men’ title.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, initially launched in 1987 as a hardcover program ‘Marvel Masterworks’ collected classic Marvel titles only. In fact, the first three Marvel Masterworks volumes, each released in November 1987, collected exactly the same material as the first three ‘Mighty Marvel Masterworks’ volumes.
This program continues to this day, with ‘Marvel Masterworks’ hardcovers planned for 2021 showcasing Howard the Duck, Dazzler, and Brother Voodoo. The first three ‘Mighty Marvel Masterworks’ volumes are expected to be released this summer, per Marvel. (ANI)