Certain Target Stores are selling their Exclusive Marvel Comic Books at over 60% discount.

I saw that the TARGET: AVENGERS TPB book was selling for $4.98. Other books were selling for well under $2.50.

TARGET AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES (Jul 2004)
Marvel Comics

I've previously mentioned about Marvel's version of their exclusive Target version of selected comic books, and I thought it was really cool that a department store like Target would carry comics.

Well it's cooler now, is that they are also carrying Trade Paperbacks. One of them is a stripped down version of AVENGERS VISIONARIES: GEORGE PEREZ.

The Target book only reprints AVENGERS #161, AVENGERS #162, AVENGERS #196, AVENGERS #201, AVENGERS ANNUAL #6 and AVENGERS ANNUAL #8 (missing are the two AVENGERS #194 and AVENGERS #195).

The tradeoff for less the two issues is that the paper and color printing has been upgraded, and the price is somewhat cheaper at $13.99 vs $16.95, but given inflation as it is, you should probably add one or two dollars to the original price.

The nicest thing is that the paper is bright white, glossy paper, similiar to the Barnes & Noble Marvel Classic books. The colors was also enhanced by a computer, so the colors are bright and blended much better than the original printing.

An example:

ORIGINAL (Jul 1999)  TARGET (Jul 2004)

As you can see the computer misinterpret Whizzer's yellow costume as white and left that one area colorless. But it still looks much better than the original block color (interlaced with small white areas).

The strangest thing is, and I know that this was originally George Pérez as the theme in the book, but the cover does not indicate it is Perez's book - nor does the main content page lists George Pérez as penciller! All the inkers, original colorists, editors, writers are listed, but not George.

Still, I think this is a great program for casual shoppers to give these comics a try. I'm looking forward to more titles.