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| Cover to Marvel Age Spider-man #18. Library edition has a red spine and is titled "Spidey Strikes Back." |
Little treasures like this issue can be found
at your local library true believers…
From 2005, when Spider-man suddenly
disappears, newspaper editor J Jonah Jameson declares victory that the Spidey
menace is over. A slew of criminals also believe that the city is ripe for
their plucking and having been attacking the city in droves. Eager to find out
why Spider-man disappeared, the Human Torch has been making rounds hoping to
catch up with the wall-crawler during one of these crime sprees. But the
Sandman and the Enforcers have also been following the arachnid-clad hero’s
routes and now have a member of the Fantastic Four in their sights. Now it’s
Johnny Storm who needs saving by his friendly neighborhood Spider-man.
Marvel
Age was the first attempt by Marvel to create all-age friendly comics that
could appeal to young readers, new-comers, and the comic book connoisseur,
Marvel, unlike DC, was more open to this in the early 2000s and I think with
the slew of movies and cartoons based on Marvel properties, they won the battle
for that generation of new readers.
The
one thing the Marvel Age books were missing was a link to the past while being relevant
and creative. For example, the first 5 or so issues of Marvel Age Fantastic
Four are a near verbatim recreation of the first 5 issues of the original
series published in the 1960s. Why, even the lingo was archaic. Thankfully,
Marvel got the message and was a little looser with the reins on later series,
such as Spider-man. However, there was very little continuity in the Marvel Age
books until the imprint was almost complete.
I prefer
the Marvel Adventures series that came afterwards. Those books were lots of
fun. There was a smidgen of continuity without making readers wait till next
month for the conclusion. 4 weeks is a life-time for kids to wait to see what
happens next to their favorite super-heroes and I give Marvel major props for
understanding this. Generally, Marvel would instead have a theme for their
titles that would spend about 4 issues. For example, the Marvel Adventures
Avengers would spend 4 issues getting to know each other better, then the next
4 issues fighting mythical creatures, and then another 4 issues adding new
members to their ranks. This made for easy reading by having each issue
self-contained and yet easy to combine in digest form for binge-reading.
The
digest reprints are generally the way to go if you want to collect these issues
easily. Single issues do pop up in bargain bins but most comic book stores shy
away from all-age titles and thus it’s difficult to find unless you are willing
to spend hours searching for these series. A digest is normally retailed at
$6-9 bucks and can still be ordered through Amazon and other book dealers. The
glue in these is horrid and can easily shed pages like a cat in summer, so
treat with care.
As
I said earlier, these books can also be found at the library. For Marvel Age
titles, they are usually found in a single bound hard-back library edition
whereas the Marvel Adventures stuff is almost always on a shelf in digest form
with additional binding to stand up to multiple readings. I’ve found these
books in several libraries in North Carolina and I am sure you can find these
nationwide at libraries that devote attention to graphic novels.
Next
week, I’ll explore the Guardians of the Galaxy and talk more about teaming with
your local library to get it to be more graphic novel friendly.
Worth
Consuming.
Rating:
8 out of 10 stars
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