Giant-Size Marvel TPB

by Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Don McGregor

Giants roamed the Earth in those days, and now they're back! Witness the formation of the new X-Men and the original Invaders! The rapid return of the wartime runner called the Whizzer! The debut of the multiplying Marvel Knight Madrox! Spider-Man vs. Morbius AND the Man-Wolf! The Defenders vs. the Squadron Sinister! The first transformation of the titillating Tigra and more! Tales almost too tall to tell, together in a titanic tome! Collects Giant-Size Fantastic Four 4; Giant-Size Avengers 1; Giant-Size Defenders 4; Giant-Size Super-Heroes 1, Giant-Size Invaders 1 and Giant-Size Creatures 1.

Genres: Comic Book, Comics

216 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually start a review of anthologies by pointing that they are usually filled with inconsistent levels of quality. Ok, I’ve done that, so let’s move on. I grew up reading comic books, and specifically Marvel Comics (some DC titles like Teen Titans, Kamandi and OMAC, but mostly Marvel) and when I was 11-12 Marvel pumped out these quarterly specials for many of their titles called Giant-Size (fill-in-the-appropriate-title-here). On one hand this pissed me off, because I had to choose between this special double-sized issue which usually features a new story and some bonus reprints or a couple of additional new regular issues. I can’t say I got all the giant-size issues, but I did get a lot of them. Including everything in this collection.
Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4 - let’s start with the obvious choice for me, and the first in the collection (how appropriate). The FF was my favorite Marvel title and so, of course, I had ALL the Giant-Size Fantastic Four issues. This one was a bit of an oddity in that it featured a new mutant. I’d have expected that in the pages of the X-Men, but it kind of surprised me here, and the cameo by Professor X was kind of thrilling, but then that’s what Marvel did best. This is solid tale featuring traditional early 70s storytelling and art (in fact this anthology is full of this stuff, so if you’re not a fan consider yourself warned), but it has some interesting twists. And to be brutally honest, I was rather pissed that Madrox took sooooo long to show up in the pages of the X-Men.
Giant-Size Avengers #1 - this was a favorite, and I read and re-read my copy to basically tatters. I really enjoyed how the current Avengers got entangled with events which had evolved from the 1940s and 1950s, and how Marvel presented those older era characters as having aged and continued to grow and evolve beyond just a retired superhero.
Giant-Size Defenders #4 - on the other hand, this was not one of my favorites. While I have greater appreciation for this now than I did as a kid, I had a difficult time with this one as my 11-12 year old mind couldn’t quite wrap my head around the nuances of the story. I enjoyed the Squadron Sinister, but I wasn’t a fan of Yellowjacket. And while I liked the Defenders, they weren’t the Fantastic Four. Usually the appeal of Marvel’s “non-team” for me had more to do with who was in any given issue than anything else. Not being a fan of the Hulk or Nighthawk, they weren't a big draw for me. But Doctor Strange and the Valkyrie were more interesting. So often the guest-stars and new members made or broke the issue for me. Son of Satan and Daredevil from previous issues were more interesting, and the Guardians of the Galaxy in the next were a particular favorite, this one was just okay. Although from a history of Marvel perspective, this one is pretty important.
Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 - this “one-shot” was another favorite of mine. I enjoyed the 3-way fight and shifting allegiances between Spider-Man, Morbius and Man-Wolf. And the art by legendary Gil Kane is gorgeous. This one is pure fun and filled with that crazy mid-1970s Marvel Team-Up vibe.
Giant-Size Invaders #1 - introduces the Invaders to the world, but as I was not a fan of Frank Robbins‘s art style, I could never quite get into the series or their origin. For me, this is the weakest story in the volume. But I know a lot of fans would likely disagree.
Giant-Size Creatures #1 - would become Giant-Size Werewolf with the next issue, but this is more appropriately titled as this story includes the debut of the new concept and look for the character of The Cat as Tigra. And I adored the character from this appearance onward. I would basically pick up anything that featured Tigra and it all started here with this frightfully fun story.
Giant-Size X-Men #1 - is the big one. THE BIG ONE. The debut of the all-new, all-different X-Men. Wow. This comic alone pretty much set the stage for the transformation of the Uncanny X-Men as growing from being one of Marvel’s worst selling titles to it best selling title. First appearances for: Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird and Storm. And also Banshee, Sunfire and Wolverine join the team at the behest of Professor X. This was all heady stuff for my kid-sized brain. This was also a particular comic that got read and re-read until it was pretty much falling apart.
I had all these individual issues when they first come out and they represent some of the best that the Giant-Size titles had to offer. If you’re a fan of 1970s Marvel, this is a nice collection to have.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd collection of Marvel stories from the '70s that don't seem to have anything in commmon other than that they all happened to originally appear in books with the words "Giant-Size" in the title. There's a Fantastic Four in which Ben is on his way to watch Namath and the Jets play (which will give old people like me an idea of the chronological context), and in which Medusa seems to be taking The Invisible Girl's place... perhaps Sue was on maternity leave. There's a nice Avengers story in which it's revealed that The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are the children of Whizzer and Miss America, a fact that was later ret-conned Magneto. Mantis was with the Avengers at the time, a character I haven't thought of for many years... I always liked the way she talked in the third person. Also, a Spider-Man with the young Jameson; a very good tale I don't believe I'd ever seen before in which the origin of Tigra is explained; and the classic forming of the new X-Men. Some pretty good work from former notables in the field.