Posted: 01 February 2020 at 12:49am | IP Logged | 1
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Threads of this type were once common here on the Byrne Forum, but these days, there are so very, very many trades and HC collections out there that it's tough to imagine there being some favorite comics that are still uncollected.
DC came out recently with an Alan Brennert collection that previously seemed as if it might be forever unattainable. Marvel's Epic line recently assembled the entire story of Doctor Strange's foe Xandu in one volume. The Black Widow run in Amazing Adventures has been collected.
This would all have been unthinkable to my earlier self. I should be very grateful, and I am. But I am also a consumer, and gosh darn it, I want more...
One collection I've longed for actually exists in a somewhat cumbersome form. Between issues 35 and 42 of his magazine during the 1950's, the Sub-Mariner appeared in a series of tales detailing events of his youth; how he discovered he could breathe above the water, how he learned of his great strength, the first time he flew, et al. This series also established Namora as his cousin and not as a romantic rival for Betty Dean as had been previously suggested. There is an edition of Marvel Masterworks, volume three of its Heroes of the Atlas Era, that reprints those seven issues in full, stories of his youth and all, but I've always wanted a slim tpb built around those tales.
Now that the Marvel Masterworks line has largely come to an end, that Atlas Era volume is becoming increasingly difficult to find. I really do think that these exceptionally illustrated, vaguely Kipling-like stories would do well with younger readers. If we must fold them in as extras to an Epic Collection of Bill Jemas's twelve-issue series featuring Namor as a young man, so be it, but that seems unwieldy.
Another TPB collection that occurred to me recently may very well have no commercial appeal whatsoever, but is nevertheless one I'd enjoy seeing; stories of heroes in retirement or otherwise facing old age. The issue with the Hulk and the 3-D Man; Spider-Man's encounter with Dominic Fortune from MTU; the final fate of the Blue Diamond from Marvel Two-In-One (a story I don't believe Marvel has ever followed up on); the death of the Patriot and the Baron Blood story from Captain America... I'm sure there are many others that could be included; stories featuring the Bob Frank Whizzer, the Silver Fox, Madame Web, Aunt May as Golden Oldie, and so on.
How such a thing could be marketed, I have no idea. "Don't discount these seniors, fellow Marvel Maniacs! They are over 65... On the Action Meter!! Their years may be declining, but the excitement is always building in these... Merry Marvel Tales of the Ages!!" I don't know. Something like that, maybe.*
How about you folks out there? Any themes or story lines that are still out there you'd like to see? Anything you've still not seen at your local comic store or Barnes and Noble that you think would help spruce up the joint?
* DC has a number of stories that would also fit this bill; tales of Superman in his dotage or battling the Microwave Man or Peg-Leg Portia. Countless stories of the Golden Age JSA entering their own golden years...
Edited by Brian Hague on 01 February 2020 at 1:08am
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