Captain America: The Complete Collection

This collection consists of actual comic books that have been individually scanned and converted to PDF files. This is one of a number of such collections, all of which were an absolutely amazing value when they were first published, with hundreds of comic books, some dating back to the 1960s, available on a single DVD for one low price. Unfortunately, Marvel Comics refused to continue licensing their content to Git Corp and the collections are no longer available. Today, the DVDs are collector's items, sometimes going for hundreds of dollars. At their original publishing price, this was an incredible deal. At the prices today, when you can even find them, you should definitely think twice.The files are not DRM (Digital Rights Management) protected, so you can copy the PDF files to your computer or laptop, even to your Kindle Fire tablet. You can also create backup DVDs to make sure that your collection always remains accessible. If you view the collections on your computer or laptop, using the Adobe official PDF viewer, everything is fine. If you view the collections on your Kindle Fire tablet, there is a semi-transparent "Marvel" watermark that will show up on every page. I've tried every PDF viewer in the Amazon App Store, including the Adobe PDF app, and they all exhibit this flaw. Once I got used to it, though, it didn't bother me much and it's handy to have a really portable way to read these files.Each file contains one complete comic book, including the front and back covers, all of the advertisements, the letters page, and so on. The files are arranged in two-page spreads, 1100 pixels wide by 850 pixels high. I can reduce these to roughly 75% of full size and still read them. Much below that and the text becomes hard to read and the details are muddy.For the collections that go back to the 60s and 70s, it's both nostalgic and hilarious to read some of the advertisements (Sea Monkeys! X-Ray Specs! Charles Atlas!). The scan quality in those earlier issues is surprisingly good, considering the age of each comic book. These are very readable, in very good condition.This collection starts in 1964, with Tales of Suspense #59, featuring Iron Man and Captain America. In 1968, we get the last Tales of Suspense Issue, at issue #99. Beginning with issue #100, Marvel changed the title to Captain America. The collection continues into 2007, with a few reboots along the way. In 1996, the original series concluded with issue #454. The next reboot concluded with issue #13 in 1997. The reboot that began in 1998 concluded with issue 48 in 2001. The 2002 reboot concluded with issue #32 in 2004. And, finally, the collection concludes in 2007 with issue #25 of the 2005 reboot. In addition, the collection included Annuals 1 through 13 and Annuals 1998 through 2001, as well as a detailed bio of Captain America. All told, counting index files, there are 584 files to browse.

UPDATE 4/20/08: AFTER USING THIS PRODUCT FOR SEVERAL DAYS, I WOULD REVISE MY RATING FROM 3 STARS TO 4. IT'S GREAT TO FINALLY READ THESE OLD ISSUES, AND ONCE I GOT READER SET UP JUST FOR READING THESE (TURNED OFF ALL TOOLBARS AND PANELS, "FIT WIDTH") IT'S ACTUALLY A PRETTY NIFTY EXPERIENCE. I STILL WISH THE PDF'S WERE SINGLE PAGES AND THAT PRINTING DIDN'T HAVE THAT AWFUL WATERMARK SMACK IN THE CENTER OF EACH PAGE. BUT OI HAVE TO ADMIT I'M ENJOYING THIS PRODUCT.Pros:1) 500 comics for $50 = 10 cents an issue!2) Complete comics are scanned, so you can read ads, letters pages, etc3) Since they're scans from real comics, they have that nice desautrated quality you get from ink printed on newsprint (as opposed to the garish colors in the Marvel Masterworks volumes which are printed on highgloss white paper.)That said, here's why I'm only going this three stars:Cons:1) Even with a 17" monitor I find I need to zoom in and scroll around. It's too bad they hadn't developed a "smart panels" feature like they have at Marvel Digital Comics. But, this is basically just a DVD with 500 PDF files on it, so you're stuck using the standard Adobe Reader interface. Not bad, but no nifty navigation tools.2) Although the files are printable, there's two problems with printing:FIRST, they print with a big fat MARVEL watermark on the center of each page -- the watermark isn't visible on screen -- which really takes away from the image integrity. I suppose I see the need for this for copyright protection, but still, it's a drag when they advertise these on the box as "printable comics." Of course, if you have a lot of time on your hands, you can do a screen capture, paste them into Photoshop and print them out from there. But sheesh! Not that I planned to print out 500 comics, but it would've been fun to print out some of the old 60s issues.SECONDLY, the pages are scanned as full spreads. It would have been much nicer if the PDFs were single pages (with "facing pages' turned on in Acrobat). Why do I say that? When you print out a full spread onto typing paper, the individual pages come out quite a bit smaller than a standard comic book. If the pages were separated in the PDF, each page could be printed slightly *larger* than a comic book. (Admittedly, you'd have to trim some margins for the occassional full-spread splashes.)

I got this item when it was about $37, back in 2008. Sounds like I'm trying to make you envious, but actually it means that in another seven years from now (from 2015), this discontinued gem could cost you $600 or more. So if you really want full control of your comics, albeit electronically, you can still choose to forgo Marvel's current spotty digital offerings and be able to read and re-read every issue of this flagship title, plus all the boring annuals (ha). The pages are clean, you get the letters column and ads, and it's a complete document with no compromise of integrity.

As of 2016 the Captain is having a resurgence due to the films- and on this disc is all the issues of his book from the start up through the bronze age- so if you want to follow the complete story at your leisure from the convenience of your monitor now is your chance. Since this was done the company doesn't have the right to put out anymore marvel discs so if you want it pick it up- there's hours of reading on here.