Cheap Marvel Comic Book Library Vol. 1 (Software) (Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Mac OS X) Price
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Navigation is easy, with a main character menu followed by cover thumbnails. (Minor quibble: the main menu uses more modern art, for example, the John Byrne Fantastic Four.) Some other points of clarification: the Captain America stories are from his solo series in Tales of Suspense (issues 59-68), which he shared with Iron Man. Those Iron Man stories, however, are not included here, and Tony Stark's alter ego is represented by his initial appearances in Tales of Suspense 39-48. Similarly, the Sub-Mariner is represented by his solo run in Tales to Astonish (issues 70-79), which he shared with Hulk, who is represented instead by the first six issues of his own book then four stories (issues 60-63) from Tales to Astonish. And the Silver Surfer's issues are from his solo series rather than his initial appearance in Fantastic Four.
Marvel Comic Book Library Vol. 1 is an excellent deal. If you were to buy these same issues in book form, in color, you'd want the Marvel Masterworks series at $30-$50 per 10-issue book. The downside is that these classic comics have a high comfort-food factor, and even non-Luddites would probably agree that it's more fun to curl up on the couch with a physical book than to sit down at your PC. (OK, you could curl up with your laptop if you really want to.) But this is an easy and affordable way to sample what you want, then pick up must-haves later.
Now we just need a volume 2, with the original X-Men, Thor, Doctor Strange.... --David Horiuchi
Pros:
- A generous, convenient, and good-looking compilation of classic comic books
- Very affordable
- Sensible navigation
Cons
- Just the relatively sterile computer presentation
| PLATFORM: | Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Mac OS X |
| CATEGORY: | Software |
| MANUFACTURER: | GIT Corp |
| FEATURES: | CD-ROM, The first 10 adventures of 10 classic Marvel characters on 1 super-powered CD-ROM, 100 complete comic books highlight the storylines of this famous band of heroes, Includes the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Avengers, The Sub-Mariner, Iron Man, and Silver Surf, Character bios and 3 free bonus Comics |
| MEDIA: | CD-ROM |
| MPN: | cs-396d |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 781735803967 |
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Customer Reviews of Marvel Comic Book Library Vol. 1
Fantastic! <
>I love this software. <
>Great to use my computer to index the items.
Lo! How the Mighty Have Fallen!
As a Marvel fan since 1968 onward, I've dreamed of a collection like this. The classic icon heroes of my youth forever preserved in pristine condition, dynamically digitized, electronically enumerated! Herein, find, if ye dare, the original appearance not only of most core heroes of the Marvel Universe, but the supremely villanous counterparts: Dr Doom, The Mandarin, Doc Ock, Magneto. A rogue's gallery! Art by the incomparable Jack "King" Kirby and Steve Ditko! Scripts by Stan "The Man" Lee! Who could ask for more! Make mine Marvel!
Yeesh! Can you tell I was raised on the dulcid dialogue of Stan Lee?
Technical notes: Each page of the comic (as previously indicated, story only, no ads or letters) appears in an Explorer window. Problem is that comic books are drawn in "portrait" and computer displays are in "landscape". So you have a choice of seeing the whole page but having black bars on each side of the screen, or blowing the page up but only being able to see half the page at a time. A lousy choice, but one made necessary by the natures of the media.
The initial display is a single page with each of the ten series lead characters, selecting from there gives you a view of the original covers of the 10 issues. Clicking on a cover brings you to a full size screen, and you can use PgUp/PgDown or arrow buttons to move from page to page. This is rather a slow process, probably due to the detail of the art & color. Use your cursors "Back" button to return to the menu levels.
A nice feature: Special buttons along the top row allow you to view either the uncolored art, or the colors without the black ink. The quality of the reproduction is excellent. Even when grossly blown up, there is no sign of digitization in the display.
Another unfortunate side-effect of this presentation is that two page spreads cannot be viewed together. Makes for some awkward reading on Cockrum's X-men art.
I recommend this for any comic afficianado over 20. Not because the material is inappropriate for kids, but because, and it pains me to say this...
The writing is just awful.
Characters endlessly talk to themselves, explaining details to nobody in particular. Co-incidences so improbable as to be laughable. Dialogue so inane that it is unreadable. And plots so silly it beggars the imagination.
Examples: In FF2, the Skrulls are convinced, based on comic book clippings, that Earth is inhabited by monsters. In FF3, the villain is a mass-hypnotist who bring a monster to life at the televised premiere of a movie. (Mass hyponosis works on TV?!?) In FF4, the Human Torch runs into an amnesiac Sub-Mariner only seconds after reading a 20 year old comic featuring him.
But I forgive all this. Truly I do. These tales, sometimes awful as they are, were the foundation for and inspired greater works to come. The Galactus trilogy, the Kree-Skrull wars, Days of Future Past.
I'm hoping this release is a sampler, intended to test the market. If they release future editions of the first 100 issues of X-Men, Spidey or, particularly, the Fantastic Four, count me in!
Excelsior!
Great value to visit the "roots" of Marvel
As a 28-year-old life-long Marvel fan, I could not pass up this CD collection, even though I already own the Essential Spider-Man vol. 1 and the Essential X-Men vol. 1 (the contents of both books are covered on this CD).
I was glad to see that it was Mac-compatible; however, if you own a Mac, don't run this collection on Safari, as it doesn't handle the Dj-Vu plug-in properly (it works just fine with Explorer). Basically, instead of using an application like Adobe Acrobat Reader, you use your browser (with the Dj-Vu plug-in) to navigate through the pages.
Each book is easy to access to, and the fact that it can be read in color or in black and white is a great feature. The image quality is top-notch, and the colors are vibrant (I would say that the visual quality in general is on a par with the great reprint of the Marvel GI Joe comics of 2 years ago).
My only real gripe is that Wolverine's popularity is not enough to justify detracking from the promise of the CD-ROM's "first ten issues" and include the "New" X-Men of 1975 (Storm, Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler) instead of the original 1960s Uncanny X-Men. It also would have been great to see the wartime version of Captain America and the Submariner, if only to compare them with their 1960s revival.
All in all, it's a great product that definitely gives out a great value for its price. I really hope that future volumes will focus on one series at a time though (which would be a great alternative to Marvel's paperback reprints).