While on lunch break with NGM I noticed the Marvel 70th Anniversary Collection at Borders. It’s a reprint of several comics over the 70 years that Marvel has been putting stuff out. I didn’t buy it that day, but a few days later I found myself picking up a copy to read over.
Growing up I was a huge comic book reader, especially anything being put out by Marvel. So I was excited to see that the following were reprinted in full color in this collection:
- Marvel Comics #1 1939
- Captain America Comics #2 1941
- Captain America Comics #3 1941
- Journey into Mystery #6 1953
- Tales to Astonish #13 1960
- Amazing Adult Fantasy #10 1962
- Fantastic Four #13 1963
- Strange Tales # 115 1963
- Amazing Spider-Man #50 1967
- Avengers #93 1971
- Iron Man #128 1979
- Uncanny X-Men #128 1980
- Daredevil #168 1981
- Incredible Hulk #340 1987
- Marvels #0 1994
- Avengers #4 1998
- Ultimate Spider-Man #13 2001
- New Avengers: Illuminati #1 2007
- Captain America #25 2007
The only story that I had read previously was Uncanny X-Men 128, with the Hellfire Club. It was one of my favorites anyway so I was glad to read it again. Actually issue 129 which isn’t included was one of my all-time favorites. It’s when Wolverine pretty much becomes a major character in comics in my opinion.
The early Namor story was extremely violent. I’m was surprised to see such violence in a book published  back in 1939. Once I got the the Fantastic Four #13 in April of 1963 I started to enjoy reading these much more. At that point that’s where all the characters I’d grown up reading about started to make their early appearances.
The “Elektra!” Daredevil #168 was a very good read even though I was very familiar with the story by now. I also enjoyed New Avengers: Illuminati #1 a lot. It was cool to read something very recent that was still pretty cool to read.
At $25 I think this was quite the bargain for all these great stories.