Mars Bars might like to tell us that small size is fun size but we all know better. Fun size is giant size.
And they didn't come any gianterer than Marvel Treasury Editions, those magnificently impractical comics that reprinted classic Marvel tales at a scale that would've made Black Goliath feel small. I'm pretty sure that Bronze Age Babies, in the not too distant past, invited us to nominate our favourite Marvel Treasury Editions and, as there's no idea too firmly nailed down for me to steal, I'm going to do the same.
I only ever had four Marvel Treasury Editions. In fact I only had three but, as I'm a Marvellite rather than a DC fan, I always count Superman vs the Amazing Spider-Man as belonging to the House of Ideas. My least favourite of the four was The Hulk on the Rampage. While it had such classic tales as Jade Jaws having to fight all his greatest foes in one afternoon, Doc Samson's debut and the Hulk teaming up with the Thing to fight Kurrgo and the Leader, it also had a not very inspired meeting of the Hulk and Hercules that could only be called crude even by early Hulk standards. Superman vs Spider-Man is reviewed here and The Mighty Avengers was packed with a raft of Avengers debuts; from the Panther, to the Vision, to Yellowjacket and even the Valkyrie.
But of all these books, my most loved had to be the single Conan Treasury Edition that I had, which featured Barry Smith and Roy Thomas' adaptations of Robert E Howard's Rogues in the House and Red Nails. With its epic length, Red Nails really was something special, as Conan and sword-swinging piratess Valeria teamed up to take on a house that could only be described as divided. Packed with detail, style, drama, atmosphere, gloomy corridors, monsters and occasional nudity, if ever there was a tale that seemed designed to be reproduced on a giant scale it was Red Nails.
But, while those are my thoughts on the matter, a blog is no blog without feedback. It's merely one of those awful static websites that belong in the dustbin of history. So, that in mind, which were your favourite Treasury Editions?