Penguin Classics Releases Marvel Collection As Its First Comic Series
Joining the ranks of Pride and Prejudice, Oliver Twist, and Jane Eyre, a series of Marvel comic books has been given the Penguin Classics treatment. The Marvel Collection retraces the beginnings of close favorites that have since swooped into the hearts of the masses.
The set of origin stories reintroduces The Amazing Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Captain America to new readers while celebrating the timeless influence the comic books have had on pop culture. Although there are only three volumes so far, Penguin Classics intends to bring in more superheroes in its first-ever comic series.
Stories begin from the characters’ origins to adventures chronicled during the golden age of comic books, a period artists and other creators hold dear.
Image via Penguin Random House
Understandably, true fans would have already been familiar with these tales, so Penguin Random House keeps things interesting by inviting an esteemed young-adult author, and Marvel fan, to pen each foreword. Each tribute expresses the personal impact the comics has made on them, Creative Review reports.
In The Amazing Spider-Man edition, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds shares fond anecdotes about his brother, alluding to the almost spiritual passing on of comic lore between generations, AV Club reports.
Image via Penguin Random House
Award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor’s foreword in Black Panther is more poignant: It speaks of a childhood where she couldn’t be herself in comic stores because she was treated as an outsider, being Black. The essay goes on to discuss the lack of representation of women or Black people on superhero comic covers.
Image via Penguin Random House
And in Captain America, New York Times bestselling author Gene Luen Yang opens up about what the superhero meant to him as a child of immigrants.
Image via Penguin Random House
Interestingly, while the Captain America volume starts with the character’s debut story from 1941, there’s a huge time jump to the 1960s. That’s because the Captain America comics of yore were rife with World War II propaganda.
The collection features both paperbacks and collector’s edition hardbacks. The latter books are decidedly more premium-looking; they feature solid backgrounds with gold foil artwork, and the sides of their pages are golden.
Each volume includes historical context by comic book academic Ben Saunders, the editor of the series, reaffirming its worth as a Penguin Classic.
[via Creative Review and AV Club, images via Penguin Random House]
