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I loved the original Marvel Masterpieces when they were released, oh gosh, in 1992. I bought the first few sets of these, Series 1, 2, 3 and I think 4 but when the comic industry basically bottomed out in the mid-90’s, the Masterpiece series was done, as were all other cards. So I was very surprised when Marvel reintroduced these cards to be released in late 2007. I picked one up immediately (they are definitely pricier than I remember), and spent about a week opening and collating it. Of course, I wrote everything down.
Each box had a serial number on it and mine was 07703/13000. The box had 36 packs with 7 cards a pack. Each pack guaranteed a Parallel card in every pack as well as an Upper Deck points card called Subcasts. Here is the full breakdown.
-Base Set- The base set had 90 cards and the characters are presented in alphabetical order. The box produced a full set.
-Subcasts-These were the Upper Deck points cards. There are 5 different cards featuring Wolverine, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and Captain America. Of course, you get a full set in the box, many times over.
-Duplicates-There were actually 90 duplicates, giving you a full second set.
-Triples- There are 9 triples.
Inserts
-Sketch Cards- There was one sketch card included and I get one of Rogue as drawn by, well I’m not sure. I checked a bit and found it was drawn by Nicole Goff. I googled her and found her website where my card is actually shown! That’s pretty cool. I even posted on the site like the nerd I am.
-Parallel A- The first parallel set is a basic holofoil and I got 29 cards. They are labeled as a Fleer Subset and are variants of the 90 card base set. Some of them are shinier than others (especially the Iceman one). These look nice.
-Parallel B- The second parallel set is a bit scarcer than the first one but doesn’t look as nice, in my opinion. It’s the basic card but with a gold trim around the left and right sides. I pulled a total of 6 of these (with the Upper Deck logo on the back) and again parallels the 90 base cards.
-Spider-Man Subset- This was a set of 9 cards and they are differentiated with the spider logo on the lower left hand side. I pulld 6 different cards and 2 duplicates for 8 total. This was just different art for the characters involved as well as a Peter Parker card.
-Spider-Man Subset Parallel- This was the holofoil parallel to the subset. I got 2 of them (Peter Parker and Spider-Man) and both looked great.
-X-Men Subset- Like the Spidey subset this is a set of 9 cards with an X logo on the bottom left. Again, different art for characters featured in the main set. Like the Spidey set I got 6 different cards and 2 doubles for 8 total.
-X-Men Subset Parallel- This was the holofoil parallel to the subset. I got 2 of them as well.
-Splash Pages- This was a great concept. They took a drawing by some well-known artists and broke it into 3 cards. They did a whole Marvel Universe set based on that (Series 4 or 5 if I’m not mistaken). There was a Ross splash page (I pulled 2 of the same card), an Adams one (I pulled 2 of 3) and a Sturzan one (again, 2 out of 3). The only thing that irked me was that I got #’s 1 and 3 of each so I couldn’t even put them together. Oh well. There was also a Ross box-topper and I got #3 of 3. It is a beatiful sketch version.
-Bottom Line- There were some things good and bad things about this set. The collation was great in terms of getting two full sets. Even if you don’t get the second one you’re all but guaranteed to get the first one. The one odd thing about the collation is that if you get a pack with some cards, those cards will always be the same. What I am saying is that if you get a pack with say, Colossus, then an Apocalypse card will be in it. When you bust another pack and Colossus is there, you’ll also get an Apocalypse. I would’ve liked to see that change but that’s really nitpicking since otherwise you may not get your full set. There were some great things about this set. First, for the base cards, the Olivetti cards were just beautiful. I think he had the best overall work in the set. There were some great artists who did only one card and they should be noted. Dodsen (Black Widow), Maleev (Daredevil), Suydam (Mephisto) and Bradstreet (Punisher) had some great drawings. One bittersweet card is #21, Dazzler, that has a Wieringo tribute on the back, since he drew that card. That was nice to see but a painful reminder that he is gone. One thing I loved was the first appearances being listed on the back. My brother and I would always quiz each other on First appearances when we were younger and this was a great reminder of that. I need to study so I can beat him next time I see him. Overall, the base set is great. The subsets were pretty decent but honestly nothing too flashy (like the old holograms they used to have). I think the appeal of these would be the Sketch cards included one per box. True you will get some artists you’ve never heard of and the art may not be their best, but it’s really special to have art they have done in your hand. I loved the sketch card I got and I didn’t have a huge problem with the box. I picked this up for $70, which is a steal, but the price tag may scare some people off and to be honest, I can see why. Is it worth over $100? I don’t think so. Wait for it to come down in price and then pick it up or if you just want the base set I am sure you can get it cheap on E-Bay, and mine will probably be up there in the future. For nostalgia it was great. The set featured a nice array of characters, but I think the price tag is too hefty on this for now. I will give this a mild recommendation.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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