Marvel Epic Collections

I’ve decided to start writing a little diary of the Marvel Epic Collections that I have read. I have been doing this for the video games I have played for about two years now, and have come to realize that I enjoy the little reminders. Unfortunately, when I started reading the Epics in December of 2023, I actively chose not to keep any records. The reason dates back to why I was hesitant to start with the Epic Collections in the first place.

In the mid-late 2000s, I was studying for my degree in History in England. I have long been a Marvel fan, and was collecting many of the monthly books, but just couldn’t find an easy way to keep up in the UK since there aren’t as many Comic Book shops there as in the U.S. So, I started buying the Essentials Collections off of Amazon. As an Historian, I always liked how the Marvel Universe had this sense of connectivity and chronology to it, and as I read through the Essentials I kept track of the order the books should be read chronologically, based on reference captions and character appearances. I was a bit bummed that the Essentials line was in black and white, but they were cheap and fairly comprehensive. And I read through a lot! A quick look at my records shows I read through the volumes of Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, Thor, Spider-Man, Human Torch, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, The Avengers, X-Men, Sub Mariner, Captain Marvel, Super Villain Team Up, Conan, Marvel Team Up, Luke Cage, Power Man and Iron Fist, Marvel Two in One, Iron Fist, Spectacular Spider-Man and Web of Spider Man. There were four more series whose books I bought, but never got around to reading.

The announcement of the Epic Collections actually took the wind out of my sails. While I was tempted to have colored versions, I had already invested too much in the Essentials line. It was a bigger blow when Marvel announced they were canceling the Essentials line. However, at this stage I had returned to the United States, and was struggling to find work. I couldn’t really keep up with buying more books anyway, so I decided to just pay for the relatively new Marvel Unlimited App, and read digitally. 

Initially, the App didn’t have nearly as much material as the books, but it did grow steadily over time. However, I found that I could not maintain moment with reading the books via the app. It was just too easy to trail off. I attempted to keep up with my timeline by reading Captain America and the Hulk, and I just fell off after a couple of issues. After a while, I simply forgot the timeline, but even still couldn’t get myself to enjoy reading online. This was the case for about 10 years, and while I kept the app, I read little, and really just kept up with my physical copies of Amazing Spider-Man.

In 2023, I started to get the itch to go back and read some of the early Thor comics. I remembered reading the Essentials, and seeing Jack Kirby’s art, and thinking how I was missing out by not having a colored edition. The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line seemed to have recently started, and as relatively cheap books, I started thinking about jumping in on that line. But I decided to do my homework. While the MMMWs seemed cheap, it was really only the first volumes which were chunkier than later volumes. I figured that the Epic Line was roughly the same price, particularly if I bought used volumes for a discount, and by this stage the Epics have so much more in print! The Epics Line had proven staying power - even more so than the Essentials.


In December 2023 I tracked down Volume 1 of the Thor Epic Collection, and read it over the Christmas break. It was fantastic! Have the physical book, colored Kirby art, and the weirdness and energy of Marvel in the early 60s was terrific fun. I decided to get another volume (volume 3; volume 2 was out of print and too pricey), and started looking at other volumes. I remembered that Conan in the Essentials line was hard to find because Marvel lost the license for the Character to Dark Horse, and I was surprised to see they must have gotten it back! There were Conan Epics! I soon learned that Marvel AGAIN had just lost the Conan license, so I rushed to buy all the Conan volumes I could find.

At this stage I began hatching a plan on how I would read these books. I wasn’t going to keep records like last time, but I also didn’t want to be tied down to one title for fear of getting bored. I also wanted to read chronologically, as I enjoy seeing the world grow; but since the Epic line is not published chronologically, there would likely be some gaps I would have to come back to. So, I planned for a four book rotation:

1: Focus Series. One series that would focus on, reading start to finish (assuming volumes are available and affordable). This series started with, and is currently Thor. I have already planned my next series to be Fantastic Four, then Amazing Spider-Man, then all the X-Men and adjacent titles in chronological order (but I’m sure that will be years down the line). So far, I have read Thor volumes 1-4, 6-9, 11, 12, and 16-29.


2: Completed Series. This started as the Conan books. I then thought to make this a spot for “out of continuity” books, but ultimately decided I would reserve this spot for series that have been completely collected, or at least have a continuous run starting with volume 1. So far, I have read Conan volumes 1-6, Conan Chronicles volumes 1-8, and King Conan Chronicles volume 1.

3: Chronologically. Here I plan to read through each Epic volume, in order based off the publishing date of the first issue in the book (or first issue of the main series in some cases). So far, I have read Fantastic Four 1, Incredible Hulk 1, Namor the Sub-Mariner 1, Amazing Spider-Man 1, Ant-Man/Giant-Man 1, Human Torch and the Thing Complete Collection, Iron Man 1, Sgt. Fury 1, Doctor Strange 1, Avengers 1, X-Men 1, Fantastic Four 2, and Captain America 1.

4: Catch-Up/My Choice. This category is meant to be for catching up on anything I have missed chronologically. So far I have not used it for that (I suppose I could for some Thor volumes, but for how I just have those baked to my reading plan). So this has been mostly non-Marvel or non-Epics volumes that I have wanted to read. It will remain that, but I also intend to start reading the Modern Epics in chronological order here too (if there is nothing else to catch up). I may not remember everything, but so far in this category, I have read: DC’s Finest Superman 1, Deadpool volumes 1-5, Eternals Complete Collection 1, Geiger, Junkyard Joe, Maus 1&2, Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham Complete Collection volumes 1-2, Sigil Omnibus


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