Essential Marvel (1996-2013) and DC's Showcase Presents (2005-2016) Discussion

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's Wednesday, which means I'm here to talk about comic books. This week I'm going to be talking about two trade paperback collected editions from Marvel and DC that are very similar to each other. They're the Essential Marvel and DC's Showcase Presents series, which each collect about 20 to 30 classic comic books from the '50s, '60s, and '70s (the Marvel Universe proper began in 1961) on low quality paper and in black and white to cut down the costs of producing such collections. I'm going to start with the Essential Marvel series just because I don't have as much experience with it as I do the Showcase Presents series, and I don't have as much to say about it. Let's get into it.

Running from October 1996 to December 2013, Essential Marvel launched with The Essential X-Men Vol. 1 (shown above), The Essential Wolverine Vol. 1 (not shown), and The Essential Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 (not shown). The Essential X-Men Vol. 1 didn't begin with the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby issues from the '60s. Instead it began with Giant Sized X-Men #1 from 1975 and continued on with the Len Wein, Dave Cockrum, and Chris Claremont's run that revitalized the X-Men after poor sales throughout the '60s caused Marvel to stop producing new X-Men stories, leaving the rest of the series from 1970 to 1975 to be reprints of already published issues.

The only volume I've ever owned of the series was The Essential Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1, with an incredible cover by Bruce Timm, the co-creator of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. This volume collects the first 24 issues of X-Men, which covered Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's entire 11 issue run, the one issue that Stan did with Alex Toth, Stan's 7 issue run with Werner Roth as the artist, and the first five issues of Roy Thomas and Werner Roth's run. It's a decent look at the original X-Men comics.

Showcase Presents ran from October 2005 until January 2016, and collected classic DC books from the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. The series began with Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 1 and Showcase Presents: Superman Vol. 1. I've only ever had three volumes of this series but they were some of my favourite books and I went back to them pretty frequently.

The first volume I ever got was Showcase Presents: Teen Titans (April 2006), which collects the first three appearances of the Teen Titans as a team from The Brave and the Bold #'s 54 and 60, and Showcase #59, and the first 18 issues of Teen Titans. While I'd watched the 2003 Teen Titans animated series on YTV, reading this volume made me fall in love with the original Titans team which, at the time, consisted of Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), Aqualad (Garth), and Speedy (Roy Harper), with a guest appearance by Beast Boy (Garfield Logan) in Teen Titans #6, prior to Beast Boy joining the Doom Patrol.

 The next volume I got was Showcase Presents: Batman Vol. 1, which was published in August 2006. This volume contains Detective Comics #327-342, and Batman #164-174. These issues cover the changeover to the "New Look" Batman that Julius Schwartz introduced in Detective Comics #327 (1964) as well as the introduction to the Batpoles, the Batphone (simply called the Hotline in the comics), a new Batmobile, and Dick Grayson's aunt, Harriet Cooper. All elements that would make it into Batman (1966-1968) and Batman: the Movie (1966). It also introduced me to the death of Alfred, and his subsequent appearances as the villain, the Outsider. I didn't even know that Alfred had been killed off in 1964 because he'd been brought back to life in the comics in response to the character's popularity in the TV show and theatrical movie.

 The third and final volume that I got was Showcase Presents: Green Arrow (January 2006), which collects all of Green Arrow's stories from Adventure Comics #250-269, The Brave and the Bold #50, 71, and 85, Justice League of America #4, and World's Finest Comics #95-140. These issues cover Green Arrow's adventures from 1958 to 1969, up to the character's revamp by Bob Haney, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano. I got this volume at Ottawa Comiccon in 2013, not too long before season 1 of Arrow ended, so this was my first time reading Green Arrow comics.

Despite these books being in black and white, this was a fantastic way to get these older stories as the DC Archive Editions, and Marvel Masterworks hardcovers were, and are, so expensive and the DC Chronicles trade paperbacks only covered Batman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, with the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman volumes only publishing the original '30s and '40s/Golden Age issues and the current DC Omnibus as well as the Marvel Epic Collections are also very expensive. So these volumes were my favourite way of being able to read the original Teen Titans comic book series, pre-revamp Green Arrow stories, and some of the Batman stories that the 1966 TV show and movie took elements from.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. Just a quick post today. I'll be back soon for more posts. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.