Marvel Masterworks is an American collection of hardcover and trade paperback comic book reprints published by Marvel Comics, with the main goal of republishing classic Marvel Comics storylines in a hardcover, premium edition, often with restored artwork and better graphical quality when compared to other Marvel collected editions.
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The Masterworks line has expanded from such reprints of the 1960s period that fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books to include the 1930s–1940s Golden Age; comics of Marvel's 1950s pre-Code forerunner, Atlas Comics; and even some reprints from the 1970s period called the Bronze Age of Comic Books.
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The end papers featured a "gallery" of three sequential Masterworks covers, along with a partial cover of the next volume in the series.
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Also during the original Marvel Masterworks run between 1992 and 1993, Marvel Comics had published lower-priced trade paperback editions of selected volumes in the Masterworks line, but these versions only reprinted half of the contents compared to the hardcover editions.
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From 1994 to 1996, no new Marvel Masterworks were published, and existing volumes did not get additional printings.
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Four new Marvel Masterworks were published from 2000 to 2002, bringing the total then to 31.
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Post-2003 afterward, Marvel redesigned the look: the Masterworks name with the title and volume number now up on top of the cover image, with the interior contents and creator names listed at the bottom of the cover art, and the dust jacket spine numbering filled in a silver square with black lettering font labeling the volume number.
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From 2002 to 2004, Marvel Masterworks brought the 31 now-out-of-print volumes back into print, all with the new silver dust jackets.
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In 2008, Marvel moved their printing plant to China and reprint the Masterworks as a trade paperback line for the third time in celebration of the publisher's then-70th anniversary year, reprinting the Masterworks monthly in the same sequence as they were originally released in the hardcover editions.
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In October 2004, Marvel Masterworks released its first Golden Age collection, Golden Age: Marvel Masterworks Comics Vol.
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