At Diamond Comic Distributor's Las Vegas Retailer Summit, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada announced that the publisher was going to reprint the hugely popular Origin #1 before the entire series is collected in a trade paperback. This may sound like a reversal of Marvel President Bill Jemas's categorical statement that 'Marvel would never, ever overprint or reprint' a title, but the Origin comic will not be reprinted on its own, but will be combined with three other Marvel comics, Cable #97, Startling Stories: Banner #1, and Spider-Man: Tangled Web #4 in a low cost edition on cheap paper that will retail for $3.99. So Origin will not be reprinted in its original format. The four comics will be printed in Marvel's 'monster' format, which uses pulpy paper and a staple binding method and the four-title collection will be christened Mighty Marvel Must Have #1.
The one-shot, Mighty Marvel Must Have #1, which will contain Origin #1 will appear on Dec.12, and will be 'quick-solicited,' which probably means a Diamond Dateline listing rather than in the November issue of Previews, though Marvel may actually use both methods to acquire orders. Marvel evidently feels that if fans weren't able to get a hold of a copy of Origin #1, they will be able to read the story in Mighty Marvel Must Have #1 along with three other titles that Marvel feels will benefit from the additional exposure. Marvel's critics will undoubtedly think that the company, when faced with a huge hit that has the potential to expand the market, stuck with its ideology rather than do the practical thing, which would have been to reprint the book. It should be interesting to see how retailers react to Marvel's plan and whether Mighty Marvel Must Have #1 will be embraced or shunned, first by the retail community, and then by the public.
Of less immediate interest to retailers was Marvel's announcement that Origin #1 would be reprinted in the Marvel Fantastic Firsts trade paperback collection, which includes the origin stories of the major Marvel super heroes. Wolvie's origin story will replace Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos' initial Marvel Comics appearance in the Fantastic Firsts collection.