This card set is "bad news, good news" to be sure. The bad news is the base set of cards: this set
is probably the worst example of image recycling I've ever seen, and that's being said about a company that has been shamelessly
recycling images for decades now. The base cards, the foil cards, and even the "sticker cards" are nothing but recycled
two dimensional looking art from a long time ago, most of which has already been overused on cards, boxes, labels, toys, and
other objects bearing Marvel's logo. The neatest thing about the base set is probably the sticker cards. I'd be tempted to say those
are a "new" idea, but they were around 40 years ago. Let's just say that they may be new for some of the younger comic book fans.
Defenders of this set might argue that the set is using old images to celebrate the events
from long ago issues or years. Personally, I would have rather seen a different artist's viewpoint of some of those special times.
Which is exactly what some of the sketch card artists attempted to do and also brings us to the good news:
This just may be one of the best sets of sketch cards that have ever been
released. Period. Even the poorest sketch cards I've seen so far are at least "competent". And the best cards? Oh, my! I don't
think I could have imagined "sketch" cards ever getting this amazing back when Marvel Creators Collection and Marvel Silver Age first
came out. Don't get me wrong: those sets were superb, and I'd be doing a disservice to the art and artists that came out in those
sets if I said they were anything less than spectacular. But some of the art coming out with this set is simply astonishing. Many of
the "regular" sketch cards folks are pulling from these sets are nicer than commissioned cards that have been coming out the last few
years.
In fact, some artists went beyond the art of just a single card with some really neat ideas and innovations.
A few highlights: Warren Martineck's case incentives each have a year on them, and a character or event of some importance
from that year. Andy Price pulled off a coup by doing some puzzle cards (multiple sketch cards that fit together to form a bigger scene)
which were pretrimmed (artists hadn't been allowed that before) to fit together flawlessly. Even more incredibly, he was able to make
some sort of deal with Rittenhouse to have all the cards from each single puzzle in one "hotbox" all together. The lucky recipient doesn't
have to try to spend years of time chasing down a missing card or two that may never show! Another highlight: Sonny Straight's subsets. One
subset includes "baby" versions of characters. Baby Galactus with one tooth getting spoon fed a world is priceless! His subset of "dance cards"
(characters celebrating the 70th anniversary at a dance party) includes DD breakdancing and the She-Hulk doing the Charleston. I was not familiar
with Straight's work in the past, but I sincerely hope Sonny Strait graces many sketch card sets to come.
Bottom line: boxes of this release are worth it for the sketch cards. As for the regular cards? Unless you're an obsessive completist--don't
bother!
The official Rittenhouse Archives site for the Marvel 70th Anniversary set
can be found here. This set, which focuses on the
70 years that Marvel has been publishing comics was "officially" released on Apr 14, 2010. Cards, sketch cards, and other info include
titles, characters, and storylines going back to the Golden Age of comics. The set has 72 cards, a parallel set of 72 metallic ink cards (1:3 packs),
a 9 "Original Heroes" chase cards (1:? packs), 9 Die-cut chase cards (1:? packs), 18 retro sticker chase cards (1:? packs), and 6 "Clearly"
Heroic acetate chase cards.
There is also a custom designed Collector's Binder which includes extras as well.
In addition to the "regular" unique and individual hand drawn and colored sketch cards (1 per box), there were also some
additional special sketch cards:
Every 6 case order includes a hand-painted sketch card by Warren Martineck.
Every 9 case order includes a hand-painted sketch card by Bob Layton.
Every 18 case order includes a 70th anniversary archive box (with at least 30 sketches).
Many previous sketch card artists have returned for this set as well as some newcomers. Next to the names below, I've
also included the reported numbers (from the Rittenhouse site or the Scoundrel Art Forum) of sketch cards done by that artist.
