I’ve been sitting on this post for a bit in the hope that a ray of light would shine through and I could write something more along the lines of “phew, that was a near miss!”.
Alas, I haven’t spotted anything to that affect so I’m assuming that the news is correct and as of the end of this year the Masterworks line will be cancelled by Marvel.
There are various sources for this as the news has certainly done the rounds now. I’ll highlight a few below:
- Bleeding Cool has a pretty concise over view of the situation.
- The Near Mint Condition YouTube Channel has some information on this from their live Q&A from earlier this month.
- I’d also check out the Marvel Masterworks fan site forum, specifically this thread: Masterworks Placed on Indefinite Hiatus.
There’s a lot of information to wade through in that forum thread so perhaps a good idea would be to start at this point in the thread where official information started to appear.
What Are (Were?) the Masterworks and Why You Should Care
The Masterworks line was a series of hardback, prestige books published by Marvel. They were reprinting in colour and in issue by issue order, a huge chunk of Marvel’s comics. They did mostly focus on the super hero genre from the Marvel Age on wards but they also dived into Golden Age Timely Comics and the 1950s Atlas Era.
Arguably the most important feature of the Masterworks was that they featured from scratch restoration of the art. In a lot of cases it was often the first time the art had been restored with previous reprints having worked from inferior sources.
For a lot of collectors, and this includes me, the Masterworks were the gold standard in reprints of classic comics.
So What?
Obviously this won’t be big news for anybody who doesn’t collect the Masterworks line. However this could have repercussions that may well affect other lines.
For example, the restoration carried out for the Masterworks was often then used subsequently for later publications such as Epic Collections and Omnibus volumes collecting the same material. These formats could well end up looking worse.
More Than Just a Line of Books
I’m certainly not going to knock anybody for preferring other formats. The Epic Collections and Omnibuses do represent more cost effective options after all.
However, the Masterworks project represented much more than just the volumes of books themselves. For example, one positive knock on effect of the Masterworks line was that Marvel – under the direction of the tireless Masterworks editor – got their archives in order.
With the pausing or even cancellation of the project, will Marvel still carry out the art restoration? Only time will tell I guess.
Moving Forwards – Maybe
So I’ve been a bit down on collecting books since this news broke. The Masterworks were a regular feature on my collecting calendar for well over ten years. Pretty much everything Marvel related I collected was based on how they matched up with the Masterworks line.
The thread on the Marvel Masterworks fan site suggested politely emailing Marvel about the Masterworks line and that’s a really good idea. For myself, I’m going to make sure I get the final volumes and then I’m going to pause buying Marvel books.
That sounds a bit hyperbolic but I really can’t be arsed with patchy collections any more! For some beloved titles (Hulk!) I’ll more than likely switch over to the Omnibus line but going forwards, I’m certainly going to be very choosy. In any case, it will take a while for the Omnibuses to catch up to where the Masterworks will be leaving off.
Fingers Crossed
It even doesn’t seem that long ago I posted the news that Marvel were Remastering older Masterworks. I assume the Masterworks must have doing really well back then so it’s amazing how quickly things change.
Here’s hoping this really is just a pause by Marvel. Lots of things are in flux inside and outside the world of publishing. It is possible that things will swing back in favour of the Masterworks line.
