After doing solid business with the Marvel Premier Collection, but not quite cracking the same sales levels as DC’s Compact Comics… Marvel is making Compact Comics. Or rather, they’re called “Compact Editions,” and at least six are coming next year. And there’s actually already one in stores.
The first out of the gate was the Spider-Man: Brand New Day collection including a few arcs from the comic book run before the movie hit theaters. Unlike the Premier Collections, which are slightly larger than Compact Comics, and more expensive at $14.99, the Brand New Day anthology was manga-digest sized, and $9.99. AKA, the same size and price point as DC’s best-selling Compact Comics line.
While the Brand New Day collection had basically nothing to do with the movie, clearly the format worked in some capacity, because Marvel is making more. And the first six out of the gate are smartly timed and planned.
First up on March 16 is Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man, which will include Ultimate Spider-Man (2009) #160, Ultimate Fallout #4 (just the Miles Morales story), and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1-#12. In short: the first appearances of Miles Morales as Spider-Man, and 12 issues of his initial run by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Sara Pichelli, Chris Samnee and David Marquez.
The same day Spider-Gwen: The Radioactive Spider-Woman will hit, collecting Edge of Spider-Verse #2, Spider-Gwen #1-#5 (from early in 2015), Spider-Gwen #1-#6 (from later in 2015), Spider-Gwen Annual (2016) #1, and All-New Wolverine Annual (2016) #1. These will be by Jason Latour, Tom Taylor, Robbi Rodriguez, Chris Visions, Marcio Takara and more, and collect Spider-Gwen’s initial adventures. Latour, it should be noted, was accused of harassment by multiple women back in 2020, as well as assault by at least one. After the allegations came out, Marvel seemingly cut ties with the creator (or at least had no future plans with him). In the past year, though, his comic Southern Bastards with Jason Aaron was picked up by Hulu, and Image announced they were publishing an anthology of his work. Now, Marvel seems to be back on the Latour train, too.
That noted, both of these collections seem likely to be timed to be on shelves before Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is finally, belatedly in movie theaters on June 17, 2027. Clearly the straegy worked for Brand New Day, so expect it to (potentially) keep going into the future.
As for the other four? Ultimate Spider-Man: Fix The World Year One and The Ultimates: Fix The World Year One will both hit on April 13, 2027. Each collection will include the first 12 issues of the series, with the Ultimates collection also including Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day 2024: Spider-Man/Ultimate Universe #1 Ultimates story. Those will be followed by Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Black Panther in June (exact date TBA), with both also collecting the first 12 issues, and Ultimate X-Men including the Ultimate Universe #1 special X-Men teaser.
As David Harper points out over at SKTCHD, unlike DC’s collections which are meant to be one and done (even if they only collect, say, the first 12 issues of a series), the “Year One” implication seems to indicate Marvel will be publishing a “Year Two” of the Ultimate Universe books at some point.
Also of note? While this Compact Edition program is starting, Marvel isn’t halting the Premier Collection format. Thor: Gorr The God Butcher will hit on March 9, 2027, while X-Men: E Is For Extinction will hit stores on April 13, 2027.
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