The Essential Marvel paperbacks contain around 30 reprints of various Marvel comics and run at $16.99 a volume. I couldn't hate them more. Reasons after the break.
First off, all of the comics are in black and white. Part of what makes comics fun to read are the vibrant colors of both protagonists and the antagonists. So why exactly would I want to buy a book that is completely drab and makes my favorite characters look like they're on the funny pages in a freaking newspaper. It physically pains me to open one of these books and look at it knowing that the original books had color and I'm just looking at a stripped down version of it.
The paper the books are printed on is very low quality and feels ugly to the touch. I have my hand on a page right now and it just feels terrible. It feels like I'm touching a newspaper. That's two ways so far in which these books are like newspapers. I'm aware that most of the comics being reprinted in these books were not originally printed on much better paper but if you're going to buy a trade paperback instead of the real deal you shouldn't expect it to feel as old as the originals.
I could never recommend these books to anyone under any circumstance. If you're new to a certain comic or comics in general and want to start from the beginning, do not pick one of these up. Even though the price is very low, it's that low for a reason; there's no color ink and the paper sucks. You may be tempted to get them because of the low price but you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading these comics in their original glory. Instead, go pick up some of the Marvel Masterworks books which are in full color. You don't get as many comics per book but the quality is top notch.
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