Iron First - no longer Essential - now Epic

I was always a bit of a fan of Marvel’s Iron Fist since I first came across him in the Marvel Team-Up books. Apparently I’m not enough of a fan to collect his series or the Power Man Iron Fist series but still a fan of the character. I finally decided to get the issues and put the Essential Iron Fist on my wish list but never got it. It was also a good example of early John Byrne art. When I decided to buy it myself, The Essentials line had been discontinued.

Marvel had started collecting back issues in books with the Masterworks line back in 1987. They are beautiful hardcover books in full color and used to be about $30 each when they first started. They only cover about 10 issues at a time. I do have the first two Uncanny X-men books as those back issues were pricey. They did print two Iron Fist books – in 2011 and 2012 but they are very expensive now.

They also came out with an Essentials line in 1996. These are similar to the Cerebus phone books in that they contain 20 to 30 issues in black and white for about $30. They released one Iron Fist edition back in 2004 but that is no longer in print.

While I was looking around on the secondary market (Amazon and ebay), I came across the info that Marvel is replacing the Essential line with an Epic line. The Iron Fist book is one of the first set and came out in July so I was able to pick it up. It has the Marvel Premiere issues, the entire Iron Fist series, and the Marvel Team-Up issues. It’s softcover but in full color.