Reccomend me some Marvel Essentials

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They clog up my library like copies of "Monster" at the music exchange.

But being a DC-type, I don't know much about old Marvel. Any reccomendations?

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

ESSENTIAL ESSENTIALS = Thor, Dr Strange, Fantastic Four, Spiderman volume one + two for Ditko magic, Ant-Man for the sheer madness. When Nick Fury comes out it will be on the list too.

See also: the Punisher one, Uncanny X-Men (and probably X-Men too if you can stand the Claremontism), Essential Tomb Of Dracula 1, 2 and 3.

Essential Supervillain team-Up has gorgeous Wally Wood art and funnyish lunacy later. Essential Daredevil ditto, though the second volume is pushing it.

DO NOT BUY - Essential Wolverine Volume one (borrow it for the Peter David stuff), Essential Iron Fist, Essential Monster of Frankenstein (borrow and read up until the Monster's vocal chords go and he turns into a sub-par Hulk).

Speaking of which, Essential Hulk really isn't. it's a guide to what you can do with the Hulk ie NOTHING. Essential Iron Man is frankly hard to finish.

― Vic Fluro, Wednesday, 9 February 2005 00:08 (twenty years ago)

You NEED the Dr. Strange volume, although you can stop reading after Ditko leaves.

― Douglas (Douglas), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

What's in the Essential Punisher that's so Essential? (If the Grant / Zeck & Baron / Janson stuff is in there, then never mind my question.)

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 04:08 (twenty years ago)

if you don't know much kirby my advice is to go right to FF volume 3, which contains loads of AMAZING AMAZING stuff - "the brutal betrayal of ben grimm," the inhumans, the marriage of reed and sue, galactus and the silver surfer, the black panther, doctor doom stealing the surfer's powers, and my favorite marvel story ever, "this man...this monster!"

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 05:48 (twenty years ago)

...and the amazing karnak!!

(check out the thread about this I started a ways back... loads of goodies there) I've got the first two spidermans and ff3, of which spiderman 2 is probably my fave

― dave k, Wednesday, 9 February 2005 06:40 (twenty years ago)

I did an essential Essentials piece on Freaky Trigger a while back. My judgements there weren't so different from Vic's.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 11:24 (twenty years ago)

ESSENTIAL HOWARD THE DUCK, people.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

Re: "What's in the Essential Punisher that's so Essential? (If the Grant / Zeck & Baron / Janson stuff is in there, then never mind my question.)
-- David R. (quoteidio...), February 9th, 2005."

His earliest apearances in various Spider-Man and Daredevil stories, plus some (originally in)black and white stories from Marvel Preview and Marvel Super Action.

So, not really essential at all, then.

David A

― David Simpson (David Simpson), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

THANK YOU ALDO!

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

Not so essential as all that, but still a far better buy for your eleven quid than, say, Iron Fist. Plus it's fairly fascinating to watch him evolve.

― Vic Fluro, Wednesday, 9 February 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

How bad is the Iron Fist? You wrote about it on the Wedge, didn't you, Vic? I'm thinking of springing for it just to bask in some primo pre-DC Byrne nostagia.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

Chris Claremont loves IRA terrorists and they are his special friends. Also, there's a heapin' helpin' of bondage, mind control, slavery and angst with a capital A for Arse. Worth borrowing for the 'Office Block Of A Million Deathtraps' episode by somebody else, but frankly the whole package stinks and I'll be offloading it as soon as I can find a sucker.

Byrne's a cockfarmer. He was then and he is now.

― Vic Fluro, Thursday, 10 February 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

Vic, stop kicking my childhood while it's down!

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 10 February 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

Essential Spidey v6 has the Deaths of Gwen and Gobby, ergo required reading. (Shame the repro quality on the second part is mostly poor...)

― _chrissie (chrissie1068), Thursday, 10 February 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

I just read Essential Fantastic Four vol 3 a few weeks ago and I have to say it's amazing. It's got as many ideas per page as a GM comic!

My problem with essentials: I like that I get all this story, but I feel like a lot of the stories (the dark phoenix saga for example) lose a lot when you take out the color. Is there some medium point that's not marvel masterworks (or something equivalently expensive) but isn't the yellow pages that is the essentials? I say this mainly b/c I want to get the dr strange one, but the color seemed to do a lot from what I saw on the ilx 100 best comics post.

PS - Barnes and Nobles had special editions of Xmen that they published (they actually say "Barnes and Nobles" on them). Full color and only like 10 bucks! I say this not to promote BN but to mention that the Chris Claremont issue collected therein has the Xmen saved from Black Tom by... ELVES!

― kenchen, Thursday, 21 April 2005 01:27 (twenty years ago)

ESSENTIAL KILLRAVEN??!!???!!!???

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 21 April 2005 08:23 (twenty years ago)

I bought the Essential Luke Cage Vol One, which is anything but - tho' I hope they do a second volume reprinting all of Don Mcgregor's issues on the title, as they represent some of his best work - along with 'Panther's Rage' and KILLRAVEN???!!!!??!?!?!? of course

― Andrew J L, Monday, 25 April 2005 21:22 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Coming in November: Essential Marvel Two-In-One AND Essential X-Factor!!!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

BUMP THAT, THIS IS THE REAL STORY:

X-FACTOR #1
Written by PETER DAVID
Pencils & Cover by RYAN SOOK
In the fallout from HOUSE OF M and following last year's surprise hit film-noir series--MADROX, a new mutant team is forged! X-FACTOR is an investigative mutant agency including Madrox-the Multiple Man, Guido-the Strong Guy, Wolfsbane-the shape-shifter, Siryn-the chorus girl, Rictor-the living earthquake, and GENERATION X's Monet-the pompous witch. Drawn together in the heart of District X, this rag-tag band of heroes has a lot of answers to find, and fast!
BONUS: A key player from HOUSE OF M will play a major roll in X-FACTOR! (No, it's not Wolverine-sigh)

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

Hello, Dan.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

Oh, like I'm gonna read a convention thread.

(ps thankyew)

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Ant-Man for the sheer madness

"Accept my gratitude, my tiny friends, for recovering my gem! Even though India, my native land, is known for strange mysteries, and occult powers, I had not the skill to defeat those thieves by myself"

...sez random dude rescued by Ant Man. That's ok man.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

Next time I need a train time I'll be sure to say that even though England, my native land, is the home of Big Ben, I have not a watch capable of calculating the time of a train myself. Accept my gratitude.

― Vic Fluro, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:24 (twenty years ago)

god i wish they were in colour :(

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

http://avclub.com/content/node/44295

― chap who would dare to work for the man (chap), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 13:29 (nineteen years ago)

my copy of essential x-men #2 was falling apart before i even finished it.. is this typical of marvel essentials?

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 17:58 (nineteen years ago)

Mine are all pretty sturdy.

― chap who would dare to work for the man (chap), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

Mine have all lasted fine.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

I need to glue the spine of one of mine, and I hadn't even had a chance to read it. The signatures seem to be holding together well enough, though.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

Is the first Claremont X-men required reading?

― c(''c) (Leee), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

it is, but beware, as many of the tropes of his writing become manifest around that time, which quickly became intolerable to me. but his run with Cockrum and Byrne are the reason the X-men is as huge as it is.

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

Skip the thought balloons and you should be okay.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

Good advice! The run until Byrne leaves, and arguably a bit beyond that, are excellent comics.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

reading the clarement stuff gets trying when he's constantly summarizing what happened last isssue, or two issues ago or whatever. and because one is reading it collected, it's really useless rehashing

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 20:50 (nineteen years ago)

also everyone explains how their powers work every time they use them

"ha ha, observe as I stab you with my psychic knife, which is the focussed totality of my psionic powers - in case you had forgotten that since two pages ago"

etc

― Mark C (Markco), Thursday, 12 January 2006 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

if i had superpowers i'd probably be blabbing about them nonstop to anyone who'd listen!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 12 January 2006 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

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