The Official Marvel Graphic Novel Collection

The official Marvel graphic novel collection has just started appearing in newsagents and is also available for subscription. First issue is £2.99 and the 2nd £6.99 (to get you hooked) with the normal price being £9.99. Now that is not cheap as there are two issues a month but what you get it is pretty awesome.

Graphic novels are usually £6-8 a piece and these are pretty decent quality hardback versions. They seem well bound and the paper is thick and glossy. They smell awesome too *sniff*. In the back of each issue is extra material like interviews and draft art. At the front is a handy summary of the events leading up to the story you are about to read. If you subscribe there are host of freebies too, including issue 3.

And if you have any doubt as to the quality of the stories here are the first 4 issues:

1. Spider-man: Coming Home by J. Michael Straczynski & John Romita Jr

So that is the creator of Babylon 5 and the guy who I think draws the best Spider-man. Plus the story is a cracker with some important implications (or they were until ‘One More Day’ *sigh*) for the Spider-man title. 

2. X-Men: Dark Phoenix by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Written by the Godfather of X-Men comics Chris Claremont (before he completley lost the plot and started churning out utter trash) and widely regarded as the best X-Men story of all time. The fact it was the basis of the third X-Men movie should not put you off.

3. Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov

Ellis would be the creator of Transmetropolitan (Go read it!) and Extremis is ranked as one of the best Iron Man stories and has very realistic artwork. Oh yeah and the retconned Iron Man origin story heavily influenced that of the Iron Man film and the Extremis armour itself being the basis of the Iron Man 2 armour.

4. The Ultimates: Super Human by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch

You might have heard of Millar, he has this fairly popular comic and film called Kick Ass recently. The Marvel universe gets as 21st century reboot almost a decade before DC thought it was a good idea and Marvel didn’t kill off their main titles in the process. This is the first story of the Ultimate Universe’s version of the Avengers which sees them taking on a very nasty version of the Hulk. Both the Ultimate Universe and this title have heavily influenced the recent Hollywood films. 

So if you don’t think you are getting your moneys worth in just the first couple of months then I sniff haughtily, vaguely in your direction. Basically it is good stuff.

If the Marvel Figurine collection (which also had for a few years) is anything to go by then a DC version is on the cards. It is probably just sitting, waiting to see how the Marvel version fairs. If that comes out too I’m going to be perpetually broke.