I previously got the first 10 issues of X-MEN, the Lee/Kirby 1963 run, in hardcover many years ago (as well as most of the other initial Marvel runs by Lee, Kirby and Ditko), and these are in their presentation far more enjoyable than the original issues. And on FF and THOR I have many of the original issues to make the comparison.
The only part I wish they included in the Masterworks (to be more EC Library-like) are the house ads, Bullpen Bulletins, and lettercolumns. But hey, you can't have everything.
In the last month, I've bought the Claremont/Byrne/Austin X-MEN run (volumes 3, 4 and 5). And these likewise gain quite a bit in the updated offset printing.
Part of it is just being able to read it in continuously in a single volume.
But the greatest benefit is the increased print quality and sharper colors. I dug out the issues to compare, and I'd almost forgotten the newsprint dots of the original issues.
And even the previous 1984 "Dark Phoenix" trade I have reprints them with the dots as they were in the original issues. The 1984 trade also is on heavier-stock paper that's harder to flip through, and the cheap binding on that edition began to crack on it back the first time I read it.
And I've thought that with how essential Marvel's continuity is to their brand, Marvel as a whole gains quite a bit from having their entire Lee-dominated first 10 years in collected volumes.
And where these volumes used to be very expensive $50 hardcovers (as I bought many, you can have most of these now (as I got the Claremont/Byrne issues) in less expensive trades with the exact same quality at a much lower price. (I frankly can't imagine why anyone would go for the black-and-white "Essential" volumes, when they can have color for almost the same price.)
And it's to Marvel's benefit to make this material as affordable as possible. Because the more accessible their earliest continuity, the greater the marketablility of their later continuity built on it.
And needless to say where X-MEN is concerned, the Claremont/Byrne/Austin issues are the gold standard, that everything after it is built on.
It's interesting to read it over 30 years later, to see how it holds up, and how it's in some ways dated. My favorite parts were appearances of Jimmy Carter and Geraldo Rivera. A different world then, to be sure.
