After presenting "Origin of Marvel Comics" and "Son of Origin of Marvel Comics," Stan Lee decided to forgo "The Return of the Son of Origin of Marvel Comics" and go instead with "Bring on the Bad Guys: Origins of the Marvel Comics Villains." This is actually something of a problematic effort because while you can simply go to issue #1 of "The Fantastic Four" for the origin of the Fantastic Four, or "Amazing Fantasy" #15 for the story of how Spider-Man came to be, the origin of a super villain is usually tossed off in a couple of flashback panels. That means the results are going to be a bit uneven in this collection.

The goal was to try and focus on the key super villain for each Marvel superhero, which means Doctor Doom for the Fantastic Four, the Green Goblin for Spider-Man, the Red Skull for Captain America, and so on and so forth. For those who want to know specifically what Marvel comics are reprinted in "Bring on the Bad Guys" here is the list of what you will find inside: (1) "Prisoners of Doctor Doom" from issue #5 of "The Fantastic Four" and "Origin of Doctor Doom" from the 1964 FF Annual, both by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; (2) the first fateful meeting of Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, and the Dread Dormammu from issues #126 and #127 of "Strange Tales" by Lee and artist Steve Ditko; (3) three installments of the "Tales of Asgard" from issues #112, #113 and #115 of "Journey into Mystery" telling the story of how Loki became the bad boy of Norse mythology and a full fledged fight between him and the Mighty Thor from #115, all from Lee and Kirby; (4) the Captain America halves of three issues of "Tales to Astonish" by Lee and Kirby telling the origin of the Red Skull; (5) issue #40 of "The Amazing Spider-Man" with the famous confrontation between the unmasked Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, courtesy of Lee and John Romita (Sr.); (6) two Hulk stories from "Tales of Suspense" featuring ol' Greenskin against the Abomination from Lee and Gil Kane; and (7) a confrontation between the Silver Surfer and Mephisto, with artwork by John Buscema (you have figured out by now that Stan Lee wrote all of the stories contained within this book, right?).

As you would imagine the Doctor Doom stories and pretty good, the Spider-Man tale is a classic, and the rest are a matter of choice. The Red Skull trilogy would be my personal choice as the best of the rest. As much as my appreciation for the way Ditko drew Spider-Man has grown over the years I have just never really liked his work on Dr. Strange. In the end, it is Jack Kirby's artwork that dominates the book more than anything else and the thing that stops this from being a really great collection of Marvel reprints is the fact that the focus on origins effectively prevents Lee from providing some of the greatest stories facing these seminal villains.

The Marvel Essential series is perfect for both novice comics fans and the hardcore faithful, providing 500+ pages of comics for less than .... Some of the collections vary in quality; the first Hulk collection is a bit spotty, with weak writing and inconsistent reproduction. But Hulk vol. 2 is a much better package. The reproduction is uniformly crisp, and the quality of the stories improve greatly. Granted, the stories aren't as deep or rewarding as Peter David's long run (or even Bill Mantlo's 80's run), but it's a fun romp nonetheless. If you're looking for more good fun, I highly recommend Marvel's Essential Fantastic Four vol. 3 and the Essential Spider-man collections (all are wonderful!). You can't go wrong here!

this has Hulks first apperance in Tales to asonish with the original stories. It also tells ofth first 6 of Hulks own series. It suffers little to the newspaper like paper

This volume reprints Fantastic Four #s 11 - 20 in a high quality, hardcover format. This provides an excellent opportunity to examine Jack Kirby's great artwork without worrying about damaging the rare comics this reproduces. Stan Lee's introduction boats nothing very insightful and is written in Lee's usually commercial format

i just wanted to be the first to post anything :)

This is a great collection of stories that features some of the lesser well known Marvel heroes; Captain America, Ka-Zar, Nick Fury of SHIELD, Namor; the Sub-Mariner, and Professor X. It starts with an early story on each of these heroes and then jumps forward to more recent continunity. Stan Lee,Mark Waid, Chris Claremont, Scott Lobdell, Mark Gruenwald, and John Byrne are among the writers whose work is reprinted in this volume and they are all great stories for any Marvel fan to enjoy.

This here is a book that is just plain fun. The Hulk and the Thing are great together, since normally we only see them punching one another. The plot is fun, a light space adventure with a (nearly) buddy movie feel to it. Two heroes on a quest. This is truely a feel good comic. And the art is wonderful, as you know if you've seen Wrightson's work. I don't know of too many Marvel comics he has drawn, so this might be a rarity. In any case, he certainly brings an exciting feel to the book with great expressions on both charaters, as well as amazing aliens and robots and flying cars and such. He adds the right angle, the right expression and the right feel to every panel in the book. He is a master illustrator. The cover is great too! All in all a fun book worth reading. It kind of makes you remember why you liked super-hero stories in the first place.

Marvel Comics really begins when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby come up with the first issue of "The Fantastic Four." You have to admit it is a rather strange quartet: Reed Richards is probably the smartest guy on the planet and now he can stretch his limbs, his fiancée Sue Richards can turn invisible (and do force fields), while her kid brother Johnny Storm becomes the Silver Age Human Torch. But it is Ben Grimm a.k.a. The Thing who makes up for the shortcomings of the other members of the FF. It was always the man who was the monster who gave the group its depth. The origin is rather lame; not the idea of Gamma Rays inducing super powers, but the idea that the smartest guy on earth would take his fiancée and her kid brother into space. In these first ten issues the FF first meet the Mole Man (#1), the Skrulls (#2), the Sub-Mariner (#4), Doctor Doom (#5) and the Puppet-Master (#8). At this point in the comic the stories are not up to the characters, but clearly Lee and Kirby recognize what they have with Namor and Victor Von Doom, who appear in half the episodes. There are better stories to come, along with gloriously dramatic improvements in Kirby's artwork, but this is how it all started.

I'll give you the straight info on this one, true believers... the plots and scripting by Stan Lee are mostly boring and repetitive (exception being issue number 4, where we Journey into Mystery, and Asgard, with Thor, Loki and the gang), as the Surfer consistently loses every conflict that he is involved in- c'mon Stan, you write a book about a super hero that always loses, then complains about it, and you really wonder how it got cancelled?? However, the true art and beauty behind this collection lies in the breathtaking artwork by Big John Buscema. Face front, comic fans, this is some of the cleanest and most powerful cosmic comic art ever produced, and you'd be doing yourself a favor to pick it up. You'll probably be disappointed by the writing, but for the sake of Buscema's work alone you'll agree that it's worth the cost (and that Thor story is pretty keen, too...)

The idea behind the issues of Marvel comics selected by Stan "The Man" Lee for "Marvel's Greatest Superhero Battles" is simply to answer those questions that have driven Marvel fans made for years: who is stronger, The Hulk or The Thing? Who talks funnier, The Silver Surger or The Mighty Thor? You get the idea.

Consequently, collected within these pages are the following: "Fantastic Four" #25, "The Hulk vs. The Thing!" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, which continues in FF #26 "The Avengers Take Over!"; Daredevil #7, "In Mortal Combat with...Sub-Mariner!" by Lee and Wally Wood; "X-Men" #3, "Beware the Blob!" by Lee and Kirby; "The Silver Surfer" #4, "The Good, the Bad and the Uncanny!" by Lee and John Buscema, where Loki gets the Surfer to tangle with Thor; a three-part confrontation between Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner in "Tales of Suspense" #79, "Diaster!", #80 "When Fall the Might!" and #81 "The Power of Iron Man" by Lee and Gene Colan (with some help from Kirby); Dr. Strange versus Baron Mordo in "Beware...! Dormammu is Watching!", "The Pincers of Power!" and "Let There be Victory!" by Lee and Steve Ditko; and "The Amazing Spider-Man" #69, "Mission: Crush the Kingpin!" by Lee and John Romita (Sr.).

As you can see the collection gets off to a good start with the Hulk and the Thing getting it on, but the X-Men, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man stories do not fit the spirit or the letter of the book's title. The idea here is supposed to be Marvel's superheroes fighting other Marvel superheroes. The Blob, Baron Mordo and the Kingpin do not count as superheroes. Granted, the Kingpin would go on to become one of the most intriguing villains in the Marvel universe this side of Victor von Doom, but there is no reason for any issue involving the Blob to be reprinted in color like this when there is an issue where the X-Men and the Avengers go toe-to-toe. Spider-Man has tangled with the Human Torch, the Hulk, and Daredevil, all within the first two years of his existence. The bottom line here is than Lee had a great idea and then somehow managed to make some mistooks in the execution.