Posted in: Avengers, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Doctor Strange, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, X-Men | Tagged: david gabriel, marvel masterworks
Is Marvel Comics cancelling the Marvel Masterworks hardcover archive line? It goes on indefinite hiatus at the end of the year.
Earlier this year, Penguin Random House listed two new Marvel Masterworks titles for January 2026, Defenders Vol. 10 and Marvel Team-Up Vol. 9, but they were soon taken down. No more were forthcoming, leaving the December 2025 titles as the final books in the line, awaiting further announcements. But the Near Mint Condition channel, which has regular contact with Marvel SVP Print, Sales & Marketing, Marvel Publishing Worldwide, David Gabriel, and gets exclusive advance listings as a result, announced today that the Masterworks line is on “indefinite hiatus.” And that he is encouraging an e-mail campaign to Marvel executives, David Gabriel and Jeff Youngquist, Senior Editor, Special Projects at Marvel Enterprises, has been arranged, appealing to them to “Save the Masterworks.” Marvel emails are usually the first name initial, followed by surname, as one word, and then @marvel.com.
Marvel Masterworks began in 1987 as a way to collect earlier classic Marvel tales in a hardcover, premium edition, with restored artwork and better print quality when compared to other Marvel collected editions. Moving from the Silver Age of Marvel Comics, it also reprinted pre-Marvel Universe Golden Age titles, as well as eventually from the Bronze Age. From 1994 to 1996, around the time of the bankruptcy for Marvel. No new Masterworks were published, and existing volumes did not get additional printings. But they returned and, with a later relaunch and redesign, have continued to the present with almost 4oo volumes to date.
The initial high price of the Masterworks line was to fund the restoration of the original art, often taken from bleached copies of the original comics’ pages, to extract the linework, though other methods superseded that. The resulting work was then reused in the Omnibus and Epic paperpack lines, which offered better value for money for the reader. However, the Masterworks line also includes bonus material and insight from the original creators. And a hardback at the original size of publication.
At this cancellation point, it will leave Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night, and Marvel Two in One each one volume from completion. Man-Thing, Spider-Man, FF, Daredevil, Captain America, and Avengers also only need a volume or two to reach natural stopping points with a creator run or storyline ending. Thor has just started reprinting the Walt Simonson run, which is the only published collection to date that used the original publication colours. While Avengers West Coast had only just begun with its first volume in April this year.
Can readers persuade Marvel to change its mind? Or at least publish a few additional volumes to wrap things up? We were that close to its fortieth anniversary as well… Here are the two volumes that have been withdrawn… a Frank Miller cover as well!
Marvel Masterworks Marvel Team-Up Vol. 9,
Marvel Masterworks Defenders Vol. 10
Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders Vol. 10 HCThe era-defining run of revered writer J.M. DeMatteis’ Defenders continues! Doctor Strange. Hulk. Namor. Valkyrie. Beast. Hellcat. Gargoyle. There has never been a team of super hero misfits quite like the Defenders. As a result, Marvel’s “non-team” title was afforded a greater range of creative experimentation—the results were groundbreaking and utterly compelling. In this Marvel Masterworks volume, J.M. DeMatteis and Don Perlin unfurl massive cosmic sagas and delve into the eldritch and the occult. They’ll explore the connection between Valkyrie and the Enchantress, Hellcat and her father and life and death. Speaking of death, Nighthawk dies…or does he? All the wonder and weirdness coalesce in a giant, multi-part battle between the Defenders—joined by the Silver Surfer, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch—and the Squadron Supreme! Collects THE DEFENDERS #103-115, CAPTAIN AMERICA #268 and AVENGERS ANNUAL #11. Hardcover · 376 pages · $75.00 · Case Bound · Dustjacket Cover
Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up Vol. 9 HCThe Masterworks collecting of the beloved Marvel Team-Up series continues, featuring the Amazing Spider-Man and a cast of colorful co-stars from across the Marvel Universe! Hey there, web-slingers! Mighty Marvel has another host of classic Spidey tales in the manic Marvel Team-Up manner coming your way! This volume runs a glorious gamut from adventures with Hawkeye to hilarity with Howard the Duck, from the horror of Werewolf by Night to thrillers with Black Widow. It also introduces a new face to the Marvel Universe with Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s debut of the future New Mutant, Karma. Claremont and his X-Men collaborator John Byrne also share a tale of Storm’s early years and her first encounter with T’Challa, the Black Panther! And lest we forget that the Bobbi Morse makes her Mockingbird debut and the unstoppable Incredible Hulk, the television sensation of 1980, smashes his way into the headlining slot for an issue. Collects MARVEL TEAM-UP #91-100 & ANNUAL #3 and material from MARVEL TALES #256. Hardcover · 280 pages · $75.00 · Case Bound · Dustjacket Cover
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