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Column:
Variant Coverage
"Essential Reading"
By Adam White
Published: 04 May 2006
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Given that most series these days conform to the six issue “made for trade” arcs and feature increasingly
random creative teams, I really enjoy reading comicbooks with steadier runs from the 1960s through the 1970s. Unfortunately, issues from this era
steadily rise in price, as do today’s color TPBs; however, Marvel spearheaded a new idea several years back with their
line of Essential TPBs that include over 500 pages each reprinted in black and white for a low price point (usually in the
$15.00 neighborhood). DC has more recently followed suit with their Showcase Presents... trades, only having waited
so long because they were likely bent out of shape that they didn’t think of it first. Regardless, these books are
perfect for readers like myself that love old comicbooks but don’t have the ten-figure income to support buying the
actual issues.
DC, having started only recently, has put out several volumes already, starting with the obligatory Superman
as well as Green Lantern. Most of the others are the usual suspects, like the Justice League, but
they’ve also taken a chance on some more under-the-radar collections that are the true value of the series. DC put
out a Jonah Hex volume to support the new series by Palmiotti, Gray, and Ross (which you should be reading, by the
way), and I was astounded by how the reprinted issues held their own against anything out today and looked even better in
black and white. You need to own this trade, because Hex is by far the best DC has released yet, and I hope they
will continue collecting his backlog of issues. Metamorpho was another that I didn’t expect to see, but there
it was, and pretty entertaining to boot. DC even has a Haunted Tank edition coming up, which goes to show that they
really have a random order of books they’re going to release, and I think that’s great because the bigger the
variety the better.
Marvel has been at it longer with their Essential trades, even though for a while they were few and far between.
Marvel started with the ones you would imagine — X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Avengers — but
later expanded their catalog with trades of Silver Surfer (which is one of my favorites), Ant-Man, and Steve
Gerber’s Howard the Duck. Lately Marvel has stepped up their production (thankfully), producing new volumes for
their main team books and Spider-Man as well as great material like Iron Fist and Human Torch. They have also
reprinted great runs of old horror books, including four volumes completing the Tomb of Dracula series, Werewolf by
Night, Monster of Frankenstein(!), and Ghost Rider. Marvel has also pushed newly revitalized characters
with these trades, most notably Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, and Moon Knight. I’m especially looking
forward to the upcoming Essential She-Hulk, which collects her entire original Savage She-Hulk series, and
Luke Cage Vol. 2, which collects the rest of Power Man as well as early issues of Power Man and Iron
Fist!
I don’t usually summarize or list things here for you, gentle readers, but I have found that many people
don’t know about these books and even if they do they are not aware of the diverse selection already out there. So I
write this column with you in mind, to make sure that you’re up to speed on these great collections, and you should
write and thank Marvel and DC for making this material available after so many years, especially considering the cost
involved if you tried to acquire the original issues.
Although I love old series from both companies, I have to say I favor the Essential line out of the two, mainly
because Marvel has produced more of the series that I like while DC has a few really excellent ones grouped in with stuff
that I don’t particularly care for at this point in time. That said, I have a few suggestions of books that
need this treatment, because there is still a lot of great material out there that has yet to be reprinted (ever, in
some cases).
So without further ado, here is my list of the best titles currently available, as well as what should be next on these
publisher’s schedules...
Top 5 Essentials
5. Iron Fist (Excellent!)
4. Tomb of Dracula Vol. I-IV (Thank you!)
3. Howard the Duck (Who’da thunk it?)
2. Essential Silver Surfer (Outstanding! Some of Stan & Company’s greatest work.)
1. Essential Luke Cage Vol. I (I love Luke Cage, and I’m glad beyond words they made this one.)
Top 7 Most Wanted Essentials (I just couldn’t narrow it to five...)
7. Namor
6. Two-Gun Kid (We definitely need a Western Essential.)
5. Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes
4. Adam Warlock
3. Captain Marvel
2. Ms. Marvel (I can’t figure out why they haven’t done this one already, what with the new series and
all)
1. Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu (C’mon guys, just change Fu Manchu’s name already...)
Top 5 Showcase Presents
5. Green Arrow
4. Teen Titans
3. Elongated Man (July)
2. Metamorpho
1. Jonah Hex (Hands down the very best — you need to own this book.)
Top 6 Most Wanted Showcase Presents
6. El Diablo (The few reprints I’ve seen of this Western are fantastic.)
5. The Flash (Silver Age; I know there are Archives, but there will be way too many and it’s too expensive,
and I really want to read these stories!)
4. Black Canary (Silver Age, since the Golden has an Archive that is excellent.)
3. Batgirl (Let’s see Barbara Gordon’s early adventures.)
2. Animal Man (While there may not be a huge wealth of material pre-Morrison, I would even suggest an Archive if
not a Showcase.)
1. Slam Bradley (I love Slam in Catwoman (pardon the unintentional wordplay), but all his appearances are
Golden Age and unreprinted — please, DC, I would even spring for Archives on this one.)
Readers: Have requests of your own? E-mail and let me know; I may run some of your choices in a future column.
—CCdC—
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