Last year, DC launched two new formats to reprint their most iconic comics. DC Finest competes directly with Marvel’s Epic Collections, offering hundreds of pages of vintage comics for $39.99. But it’s DC’s Compact Comics that proved to be an unmitigated success for the publisher. For $9.99, readers can get a complete story from DC’s celebrated library. Stories like Watchmen and All-Star Superman are more affordable than ever, the kind of accessibility publishers save for the great works of literature.
To compete, Marvel has introduced the Premier Collection. This time, for $14.99, readers can enjoy complete, classic Marvel stories. Does the new format do justice to Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting’s spy masterpiece Captain America: The Winter Soldier? And just how far does that extra $5 travel for readers?
The Winter Soldier is simply undeniable. Spawned from the widescreen cinematic era of Marvel Comics, Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America could easily feel like a product of its time. But, because of Brubaker’s careful scripting and Epting’s incredible sense for pacing, staging and action, this story, like the titular Captain, feels timeless.
If you’ve seen the 2014 film adaptation, you’re likely familiar with the premise of The Winter Soldier and, of course, its central twist. But even if you do fall into that camp, the source material still provides enough espionage and intrigue to make it worth the price of admission. This nearly 20-year-old story starts as one might expect any Cap story to start. The Red Skull has nefarious plans and Cap is stopping some terrorist grunts from executing said plan.
Marvel
But, it’s when the Red Skull is mysteriously assassinated that the story takes off like a freight train. This also kicks off a series of Steve Rogers’ PTSD-coded nightmares, where he is remembering (or misremembering?) things that happened to Bucky and himself during World War II. Eagle-eyed readers may be able to connect the dots between the mysterious new assassin this storyline introduces and the very specifically Bucky-centered flashbacks. Fortunately, that’s where the similarities to Batman: Hush end. And unlike its contemporary from the Distinguished Competition, Captain America: The Winter Soldier keeps its cast small and free from needless cameos.
The Premier Collection comes in slightly taller and wider than DC’s Compact Comics. And while that size difference is negligible, it’s what Marvel does with it that makes Premier Collection comics worth your while. In addition to reprinting The Winter Soldier, its covers, variants and concept sketches, this new edition features a foreword by Sebastian Stan, the Academy Award nominated actor who plays Bucky Barnes in the MCU. Stan talks about what Bucky means to him, how much he has learned from this experience. Plus, there’s a new introduction by Ed Brubaker. In it, he tells readers about how since he was a kid he always wanted Marvel to bring back Cap’s sidekick.
Marvel
These extra features are a nice touch that DC simply does not offer in the Compact Comics line. But do you know what else is a nice touch? The way the Premier Collection feels to read. These books are printed on a premium-feeling, almost velvety paper that never smudged when I was reading it. And the matted finish on the book’s soft cover hid even the most intense fingerprints. The Premier Collection has a premium feel. Marvel clearly wants readers to get their money’s worth out of this line and they want readers to know that what they’re buying is a prestige product.
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