Customer Reviews

40 years of the Avengers

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This DVD-ROM is a great way to get all the great Avengers epics from the past 40 years (the Korvac saga, the Kree-Skrull War, the big blow out against the Masters of Evil, etc.). You get to see the team form, see the return of Captain America to modern times, see the line up change and change and change - a hallmark of the Avengers book.

The only reason I dropped this one star is the fact that the seven Giant Sized Avengers volumes from 1974/1975 are missing. These were like annuals back in the day but the main book often had issues that lead into them. Further, a pivotal event - the marriage of the Vision and Scarlet Witch - appeared in these Giant Sized issues. To leave them out is just criminal.

This DVD collects all Avengers issues including annuals but omitting the Giant Size Avengers. The company has scanned in all the pages (including ads, Bullpen page, letter pages, and back cover) from actual issues. A few of the pages are scanned in slightly crooked--sometimes this is the printing on the originals and sometimes it's just crooked placement.

I thought it might be difficult reading the comics on a computer screen, but after a few pages I liked turning a page with the push of a button. If you have a bright monitor or laptop, the colors should look nice.

Make sure that you upgrade to Acrobat Reader 6 (included on the disk) so that the Marvel watermarks don't show on your screen. If you try to print a page the watermarks will (I believe) appear.

Overall, a wonderful addition for those who have the original issues but can't read them because of their value, for those who don't want to buy a bunch of the Masterworks titles, for those who want to see the comics with the original colors and printing quality, or for those who want to read all the issues in color. The cost of the total collection may seem high, but think about buying over 550 comics. That's less than a dime an issue--more than I paid years ago (12 cents)!

As Marvel does more of these, they may "crash" the back issue market. People who have the comics may decide to buy these DVDs and sell their back issues.

Highly recommended.

This is so incredibly great: 40 years of comics on a single DVD? It's a *fantastic* deal at the current price. However, some people will have problems with seeing the contents on this disc. See P.S. for details...

I'll agree with anyone who says having actual comics is better than staring at a screen, but this is both cost-effective and space-effective. Much less of a need now for long stacks of comics boxes. Other related items worth checking out...

1. SNAP! Avengers (Jewel Case)- issues 1-10 & cheaper, for Lee/Kirby fans. And...
2. Avengers: The Ultimate Guide. A great resource that I currently recommend.

Almost the entire history of the Avengers? Even Heroes Reborn is covered. The only thing this disc is missing, besides the Giant-Sized issues people have mentioned, is The West Coast Avengers aka Avengers- West Coast series, but that would be asking quite a bit. :) I guess we'll be seeing *everything* Marvel has ever published eventually. On this particular disc, the content is viewable with Adobe Acrobat 6 & up, and it's nice that it works with both Windows & Mac. I can't recommend this highly enough!

P.S. Some people will only be able to see the 1960s folder. My computer is running both Windows 2000 & XP. In Windows 2000, I couldn't for the life of me get my computer to see more than that 1st folder. It's as if that's *all* that's on the disc. Gitcorp thinks CD packet writing software on a person's computer will interfere with the way the disc is viewed, so they recommend uninstalling packet writing software like Roxio to see if that'll help. It didn't. I tried rebooting in Safe Mode, uninstalling programs, reinstalling programs: nothing I tried could make the disc readable. Switching to XP though "fixed" the problem immediately. In my Windows XP installation, this DVD's contents were easily readable. Sure enough, the *entire* contents were now there. I should note that I don't use Roxio or Nero software in XP, so if XP users are having this problem, that might be it. I *only* experienced this issue with Windows 2000.

The problem is in the way the disc was made. All the content is really there, but some computers can't read more than the first folder, so you might think that's all that's on the disc. Getting a replacement disc won't help: all copies of the Avengers gitcorp made are like this: viewable on some computers, not on others. Many people just take this disc to another computer and copy its contents there. You can copy onto CDs, DVDs, hard drives, etc. and then bring that info back to your original computer.

If you have a Mac, and are having difficulties with this dvd, here are some tips.

Are you opening it with Preview? If you just click on the icon on the disk, it will open in Preview... but this will not work properly. You must use Adobe Reader to see the pages without the watermark.

Install Adobe Reader from the dvd.
Make an alias of Adobe Reader and put it in the Dock.
Click and open the dvd icon.
Click and open the decade folder.
Don't open the year folder... click and drag the pdf icon, (such as FF_1960.pdf... I have the Fantastic Four dvd, so substitute whatever is appropriate), onto the Reader alias in the dock to open.
Click on year.
Click on month.
Click on the magnifing glass icon to zoom to any size.

I hope this is helpful!

I absolutely recommend this to anyone who liked reading The Avengers comics when they were kids. This is the only affordable way to actually view copies of these old issues. The scanning is high quality and of course, the stories are excellent. In another review a person had complained that the scanning was crooked. However, it is not the scans that are crooked, but the actual comic pages were crooked. The old comics did not have very high quality in the printing and binding processes. However, none of that detracts from the reading pleasure. The comics on the disk should be readable for decades to come because they are Acrobat files which do not need any rare software to be viewed. Enjoy!!

It's amazing having the entire history of a comic series at your disposal. In print format, it would be impossible for most people to own, let alone store, this much comic book history. You have to adjust to looking at the comics on the screen, rather than holding it in your hands (a large monitor helps), but other than that I highly recommend this entire series of digitized comics.

To be able to go back in time and see how the comics reflect the times, whether they be in the 60's, 70's or more recent years, really shows you how closely comic books reflect pop culture.

When I was a kid, I religiously read many of the Marvel comics. The Avengers was one of my favorites. In my dreams I would have loved to have read all of the issues, but the expense would have been (WAY) too much. Now, after so many years the opportunity is finally here. I was afraid that my youth would be too far removed to enjoy reading these anymore, but I took a chance and bought this DVD anyway. It was worth it - by a mile. I am enjoying reading each and every issue since the famed #1 as much as I would have as a kid. It will take a long time to get through them all, but I'll enjoy every minute. Stan Lee, thank you for such a simple pleasure. Great stuff for kids of all ages.

Ok I gave it 4 stars just for the fact that you cant actually hold them in your hands and read them . I do have them on my laptop so I guess that kinda works. Whats great about it is the price. 30 bucks for 40 years of comics.....get real!!! I did have some install problems at first like others have but when I took the disc out and reloaded it it fixed itself. I think it was a Adobe update but it did it for me so no biggie. My only problem now is when am I going to find time to read all of the issues. Oh and one more thing you can save the disc to your hard drive so you can save it at work and read at lunch without having to bring the disc with you. Highly recomended if you love comics.

As with most other reviewers, i am a long time Avengers fan. The first issue I purchase off the newsstand was Avengers #149 in 1976 and it was probably the first one I pulled up and re-read.

I've long since stopped collecting; after about 1993 or so most of the titles i had liked became either too complicated or violent or had maybe i had moved on. Now my kids (4 & 7) are big time fans, and to be able to let them virtually page through comics from my fan days is priceless. I have all the issues in boxes, but i'd like to pass them on in the same condition, so it's a MUCH cheaper way to let them enjoy them.

Everyone talks about being able to read the complete run of a series, but I think people forget that that's not how you buy them (usually). Each week, I would make my way (on bike) down to the 7-Eleven and check to see which Marvel issues had come out. So, I would buy them, en masse, and take them home and read each new issue. Why do I bring this up? Because, if you buy all the Marvel Titles on DVD, you can literally read an entire months worth of issues, just as you did when they came out. Talk about Nostalgia Heaven!

'Nuff Said (and Avengers Assemble!)

Erik

This is the full run of the best team book in comics, at a fraction of what it would cost to buy these books individually or in reprints. An unquestionably good deal.

I had the problem with the disc mentioned by other customers, where the only folder visible was the 1960's folder. I checked online and found that the issue is actually a bug with Roxio Easy Media Creator 8, and not with the GIT Avengers disc. I still haven't narrowed it down to a specific module of EMC8, but I un-installed several of the DVD-authoring-related modules and could then view the Avengers disc in its entirety. I then copied all the PDFs to my HD and re-installed EMC8. Hopefully Roxio will come out with a fix for this problem.