Marvel Comics is expanding its partnership with new distribution partners Penguin Random House with a series of special edition collections starring some of the publisher's biggest characters, including Captain America, Black Panther, and Spider-Man.
The collections, which will be available in hardcover and softcover editions with premium binding and covers, will include the origin stories of each of the respective characters along with a curated selection of other key stories from the character's past.
More unnamed collections are planned to follow the initial Captain America, Black Panther, and Spider-Man volumes. The premium collections are described by Marvel as being bound in "black spine paperback as well as a collectible hardcover edition with beautiful gold foil stamping, gold top stain edges, and endpapers featuring artwork from the comics."
In addition to the collected stories, the editions will each feature a foreword from contemporary young adult authors introducing the characters and their tales, some of whom have even worked on the comics in question.
The Amazing Spider-Man collection will include a foreword from author Jason Reynolds, writer of the Miles Morales: Spider-Man novel. Black Panther will feature a foreword from Wakanda Forever writer Nnedi Okrafor. And finally, the Captain America collection will feature an introduction from Shang-Chi writer Gene Luen Yang.
Here's a gallery of the covers for both the hardcover and softcover editions:
"The comics produced at Marvel in the '60s can be compared to the most enduring popular music of that same tumultuous decade," states Penguin Random House editor Ben Saunders in the announcement.
"Working at tremendous speed in what was widely regarded as a low-status commercial medium, the creators at Marvel initiated and participated in an aesthetic revolution," he continues. "These comics have now influenced writers and artists across all forms of media — from contemporary novelists to hip hop musicians to Hollywood filmmakers. It is not hyperbole but simply a fact: these classic Marvel Comics are foundational documents of our culture.”
The collections for Spider-Man, Captain America, and Black Panther are due out June 14, 2022.
Some of the stories told in these new collections may be among the best Marvel Comics stories of all time.
