Marvel Masterworks

Marvel Masterworks is an American collection of hardcover and trade paperback comic book reprints published by Marvel Comics. They are printed in full color and feature various titles from the Golden Age, Pre-Code (Atlas Era), Silver Age, and Bronze Age of comics.

The collection started in 1987, with volumes reprinting the issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and The Avengers. Approximately 10 issues are reprinted in each volume. As of 2011 the number of Masterworks is over 180 volumes. The Masterworks line has expanded from such reprints of the 1960s period that fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books to include the 1930s–1940s Golden Age; comics of Marvel's 1950s Pre-Code forerunner, Atlas Comics; and even some reprints from the 1970s period called the Bronze Age of Comic Books.

There is also a black-and-white trade paperback line, Essential Marvel, with approximately 25 comics per volume; and the full-color, oversized, hardcover Omnibus line, each volume of which reprints the equivalent of three to four Masterworks.

Marvel rival DC Comics began publishing its similar DC Archive Editions two years later. Because DC has produced new volumes more consistently, the Archives were nearly twice the number of Masterworks, but with the near-suspension of the DC program, the gap has been closing fast.