Crabby Marathon Wrap-Up!!! Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Battleworld Box Set

 I've been working on this eleven-volume monster for over two months now, and I'm honestly sad that I'm done with it.

 Marvel has gone above and beyond (Ha ha ha) with this one.....The eleven hardcovers are all gorgeous, and extremely well-made: The art is on the cover boards, so they have no dustjacket, the paper is beautiful, and the binding is sewn, so the books lie flat while being read. The spines of each hardcover form one continuous image across all eleven books,

and the set comes with a "Poster" (Really a massive fabric wall-hanging) depicting Alex Ross' take on the iconic Mike Zeck SECRET WARS #1 cover.

 (The fabric used for the wall-hanging is pretty much the same as you'd get for a cheap pair of sheets for your kid's bed. Not that there's anything wrong with the choice of material, but I have kids, and that was the first thing that popped into my head when I took the wall-hanging out of it's little plastic bag.)

 The box set has a neat little magnetic feature that keeps the cover closed,

and the box/slipcase itself is as sturdy as hell. My wife knocked my box down off of a four-foot-high perch, and it didn't sustain any noticeable damage. (I did tell her that it was broken, and used that as a way to finally get her to agree to never enter my man-cave again without me being in there, and granting permission, so that was worth the purchase price alone.)

 If I had any small quibble with this box set, it's on the production end, rather than editorial. (The collection itself is exhaustively complete, and contains EVERY SINGLE THING you could possibly think of that is SECRET WARS-related.) If you look closely at the pictures above, you'll see that there's a space between the top of the books and the top of the case. This space is filled by a piece of white Styrofoam, to keep the books from jostling around. Good solution, but for $500.00 retail, I expected a slipcase that fit the books perfectly. Marvel should have crafted the box itself to fill that dead space. It's not a deal-breaker, but it's a little unsightly, and sets off my high-end-collectible OCD.

 That's a small, tiiiiny beef, however, and doesn't take away from what a beautiful production the MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS BATTLEWORLD BOX SET is, or what an amazing job Editor Mark D. Beazley and everyone involved at Marvel did gathering up every SECRET WARS-related tidbit and compiling them into one gorgeous, fun package. I had a ball reading this set, and I'm sad that I'm done with it. I hope Marvel keeps making box sets like this. I doubt I'd buy very many, but if any of them call to me the way that this one did, I'd be happy to add it to my collection.