Mini Marvels: Ultimate Collection

by Chris Giarrusso, Sean McKeever, Marc Sumerak

All-ages fun featuring the wild and crazy kid counterparts to Marvel's greatest heroes Featuring Spidey, Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk, and more Marvel favorites - reimagined for an all-ages audience All your favorite Mini Marvels adventures collected in one hilarious and action-packed collection Be there when Spidey gets the Paperboy Blues, Wolverine goes on a Cereal Quest, Hulk goes on a date, and the Fantastic Four are impersonated by Skrulls. Plus: Spidey gets in over his head when he babysits Power Pack, but he gets by with a little help from his AMAZING FRIENDS Iceman and Firestar

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Humor, Childrens, Graphic Novels Comics

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Colleen AF]

Read this on the train and the kid next to me was FASCINATED. His mother kept scolding him for leaning against me trying to sneak a peek at the pages. When I was done I decided to give it to him and you'd have thought I have him a $1,000 he was so excited. Just a little more proof that kids would LOVE this book if if was put in front of them. It's so tongue in cheek funny with enough visual jokes to get even non-readers laughing. My personal favorite part: Jameson yells at kid version of Spider man and the lollipop flies out of his yelling mouth, suspended in mid-air in the static panel...but then it continues to stay in that exact spot for the rest of the book. Every time you go into his office there's this random floating lollipop that is never explained. I seriously giggled every single time they showed it. Chris Giarrusso is brilliant. Just Brilliant!

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars, but I just can't bring myself to round it up. This is, apparently, everything that was ever published under the Mini Marvels name. There's single strips, single page, and multiple page comics in here. Like Tiny Titans, it's a chibi-fied version of the Marvel universe, with kid-friendly storylines. As an adult reading it, I didn't like it quite as much as Tiny Titans. But I think a kid would like it just as much, probably more. There's a lot less backstory required to understand what's going on than in Tiny Titans. A kid who'd seen the most recent crop of Marvel movies could keep up admirably. Take the ongoing storyline of Spider-Man trying to deliver Norman Osborn's newspaper. Anyone who's seen the first Spider-Man movie (and who over the age of eight hasn't?) would be able to follow. And there are still a few bits for adult readers, like the Mini Marvel take on Civil War. A fun read, for sure.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like children's comics way too much. There are definitely a few laugh out loud moments, but it isn't quite as good as Tiny Titans or Marvel Adventures. Some parts are definitely worthy of five stars. There are some story-lines I didn't care for. The ones about writing comics are only two-stars. I didn't like how the book was arranged. Some of the joke would have been funnier if the stories had been presented in a different order. I would have liked more appearances from female superheroes and heroes of color. It's still more than worth reading for "Cereal Quest," "Paperboy Showdown," and "The French Bread."

[Tzippy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite part is THE ENTIRE BOOK.

[Bobby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this comic so much. It’s probably the funniest comic I’ve ever read, but that definitely won’t apply to everyone. I read Tiny Titans a lot when I was little, and this is the marvel equivalent, which I love. I should like it better than tiny titans, but I don’t for nostalgia reasons. The art is absolutely fantastic, and even though the characters are very simple, they don’t get lazy and not shade, or have interesting angles. The jokes are hilarious and very clever, and my favorite characters are Hawkeye, Spider-man, and The Silver Surfer. I’m honestly shocked this doesn’t have a huge fandom, or even a tiny but devoted one like the Dog Man fandom. I highly recommend it, stellar read.

[Anja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super süße Geschichten mit den Helden aus dem Marvel-Universum als Mini-Version

[Timothy Hinkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked some of the pieces in this collection better than others, which is pretty much how it goes with collections. If I were to rate each piece individually, the ratings would range from three to five stars, so four stars seems reasonable for the whole book. Except, that part of the draw of the book is that it's the Ultimate Collection, containing every bit of Mini Marvels material that could be dug up. If I had the DVD of a five-star movie but the making-of documentary was really dull, I wouldn't knock a star off the DVD. But this book isn't like the DVD of a five-star movie in that none of the stories are singled out as the featured story.

Anyway, if the book was called Cereal Quest and Other Adventures I'd give it five stars, while if it had been published as Bullpen Bits and Suchlike it would get three. Though if it had been called either of those things, I might not have picked it up in the first place.

(Hmmm... I think there are some strips on the Bullpen Bits site that weren't in the book, so there's another good reason to knock off a star.)

[Lissibith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection. A great, hilarious, collection of comics for people who like their humor all-ages and a little bit wry and dry. There's a heavy inspiration here from the Peanuts, and it shows in the art style and also in the precocious way the kids talk. There's a mix of original stories and spoofs of main Marvel storylines in this collection, but you don't need to know all the Marvel continuity to enjoy these tales. From Spider-Man and Venom fighting over a paper route to Hawkeye becoming a herald of Galactus, the stories are all entertaining and the art, very very cute.

[Khairul Hezry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvel superheroes in kids size. Looks like it was targeted at the young 'uns who have never picked up a Marvel book before, but not so. The book is chock full of references to Marvel's well-known story lines that you have to spent a few years as a comic book geek to "get" the jokes. Not for the kids. More like for the kids' comic book reading dad.

[Cami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty cute. It is nice to have a milder version of these comic heroes to pacify my younger children with, since the media is constantly advertising these images.

It takes the frequent themes and characters of Marvel Comics and makes them more innocent and child-centric. As a Marvel fan, it's a lot of fun to know all the insider stuff in here and chuckle at it.

[Jamil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Peanuts hit by cosmic rays. Contains some true Hulk comic gems, as well as a strip in which the Fantastic Four entomb the Super Skrull alive; a masterpiece of late-Schultz ambivalence and melancholy.

[Dolores · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming art and laugh-out-loud humor combine in this series of vignettes. Wolverine is on a quest for cereal, Spider-man has paperboy woes with the Green Goblin as his toughest customer, and no one appreciates Hawkeye. Fun for all ages.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, cute and adorable. Not quite as good as Tiny Titans, but really enjoyable (and I don't think I ever felt as sorry for Wolverine as I did when everyone stole his cereal, poor guy!).

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is sooo good, very funny. There are just too many highlights to mention. I often found myself laughing out loud.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable!

[D'Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this way more than the Tiny Titans DC series, but I still didn't love it.

[Laura5 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable art and clever humor.

[Aundre Johnson]

cool

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this collection. It shows the evolution of Mini Marvels from Peanutsesque slice-of-life comics to sarcasm-laden commentary on the main Marvel universe, and I enjoy it all.