Packs Per Box: 24
Total Cards Expected: 120
Total Cards Received: 116
Total Base Set w/o SP Cards: 90
Total Base Set Completion: 100%
Duplicates: 10
Inserts and Parallels
Sapphire Parallel (1:3 Packs): (8) Angel, Cyclops, Speedball, Giant-Man, Deathbird, X-Man, Layla Miller, Ultron
Emerald Parallel (1:25 Packs): (1) The Captain #023/100
Diamond Parallel (1:288 Packs): (0)
Artist Drafts (1:12 Packs): (2) House of M #1, Dark Avengers #11
MGB Thor Expansion (1:24 Packs): (1) Thor vs. Gorr
MGB Thor Expansion Red Parallel (1:144 Packs): (0)
MGB Thor Expansion Gold Parallel (1:288 Packs): (0)
MGB Captain America Expansion (1:24 Packs): (1) Captain America vs. Captain America
MGB Captain America Red Parallel (1:144 Packs): (0)
MGB Captain America Gold Parallel (1:288 Packs): (0)
Shadowbox Cards (1:48 Packs): (1) Wolverine
Avengers Origins (1:48 Packs): (1) Ant-Man & The Wasp
Heroes and Villians Expansion (1:48 Packs): (0)
Sketch Card (1:24 Packs): (1) Magneto & Quicksilver
Our Thoughts:
The base set cards are a good design. On the front of the card, the background has a cover of the comic book that the character is being taken from to be talked about. The character is then in full color in the middle of the card. The back has a picture of the comic that the character was in. It lists the issue and issue date. It also gives a synapses of the comic book.
The bad of the base cards? We are going back to comics that were published in the 70's. The base cards are set within 10 of the biggest events of the Marvel Universe. If the set is 2014 Marvel Universe, why are we going back in time to look at the past storylines? And not all of your favorite characters made the cut from these storylines. Wolverine has 4 cards, while Nightcrawler has none. It seems like the major heroes of the universe get almost all of the attention. There are a couple of notable exceptions. The Swordsman, Scalphunter, Giant-Man, and Amadeus Cho all received cards in this set, which is good. But if Marvel wants to portray some of their heroes as being back burner heroes because they aren't in this set, then say hello to the back burner Daredevil, Moon Knight, Iron Fist, Beast and others.
The parallels are something that Marvel is having fun with. 8 Sapphire parallels just gives something that isn't the bast set cards. The Emerald card that is numbered to 100 is there for a hit in the box. The Artist drafts aren't real cool. While I like the sketch look on the front, I would have rather had an alternate vision from the artist and then have a colorized version of the original on the back. I do not like the Marvel's Greatest Battles expansion here. You could do 4 sets of those cards by themselves and not do a duplicate battle. So putting them in here seems like a waste.
The rest of the inserts are good to have, it allows collectors to try and find the singles that they want or need. The Shadowbox Cards are a good idea that the execution needs a little bit more work on. I would expect that the three thick pieces to make the card would be cut in the same dimensions. But they are not.
The Final Say:
I was disappointed in this set. The base set is where it went wrong. I liked the House of M as much as the next guy, but if this is 2014 Marvel Universe, I expect the 2014 Marvel Universe. Instead of doing 3 or 4 Avengers and X-Men storylines, why not do something like Shadowland. A under the radar story that would allow more characters to be spotlighted. The sketch cards are here like usual and I do like the Shadowbox cards idea. I don't believe that a lot of thought was put into this set. I am hopeful that the next release will be something that make up for this one.
Box Value 1.5 out of 5
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