Marvel Masterworks is coming back, and the people bringing it back know exactly what’s at stake. This isn’t simply another series of hardcover collections; since 1987, Marvel Masterworks has become a library within the House of Ideas that is Marvel, preserving decades of comics in painstaking detail and looking very handsome while doing it. So when Marvel’s long-running line appeared to be ending, fans weren’t just losing some books. They were losing an institution.

Enter Clover Press, which is taking on Marvel Masterworks (in partnership with Marvel, of course) to preserve the reproduction quality, physical format, archival extras, and shelf-to-shelf consistency collectors expect, while adding new editions and collectibles designed to invite more readers into the club. Popverse spoke with Hank Kanalz about how the deal happened, why Clover believes it can make Masterworks work, and the one question every longtime collector wants answered: Will these books still match the ones already bending our shelves?

If you haven't yet, check out Clover Press' Kickstarter for Modern Masterworks. Think of it less as crowdfunding and more as helping Clover figure out how many to make.

How Clover Press took over Marvel Masterworks

"When we first heard the news, our reaction as book lovers was 'Wow, that’s a shame…'," Clover Press publisher Hank Kanalz tells Popverse. Kanalz is best known these days as a comics executive, but he has a long history in the industry that includes writing comics, being a comics journalist, a comic shop worker, and, you guessed it, being a comics fan (a job he still holds). As it turns out, Clover Press is full of comics fans, with Clover Press co-founder Ted Adams having the fully reinforced bookshelves necessary to hold the entire Marvel Masterworks line going back to 1987.

"... and then Ted, who has collected the entire line, thought, 'Hey, maybe we could take this on?' So I reached out to Marvel and asked," Kanalz continues. "Coincidentally, the day I sent the email to Marvel, they were discussing internally how Masterworks could continue, and [then-Marvel Comics publisher/president] Dan Buckley wondered if Clover Press would be interested. It was amazing timing, and just confirmed to both parties that this was meant to be."

Kanalz sees the Clover Press era of Marvel Masterworks as a long-term commitment, not just between two companies, but between him and his team and the Marvel Masterworks fans (and those they're confident they'll win over).

"We’re committed to the long haul, as long as there’s enough interest to continue the line. The feedback we’ve received just from the retailers when we announced this gives us confidence that there is," says Kanalz. "And since the news leaked out after SDCC, we received many emails from collectors excited that we’re continuing."

Yes, Popverse was the one who broke the news of Marvel Masterworks returning back in July 2026. You're welcome, Clover Press. But in the flurry of news that it was happening, the number one question I personally received from fans was if this new version of Marvel Masterworks would retain the look, feel, and heft we've come to enjoy from the original in-house Marvel version.

Hank's answer is yes. 

Will Clover's Marvel Masterworks match the original books?

Kanalz tells us that the key, can't-lose details of the Marvel Masterworks format of collecting comics is the "high fidelity of the reproduction."

"With our work with the Library of American Comics, we set a high standard for the reproduction on our Dick Tracy, Amazing Spider-Man, and Terry and the Pirates series, and these would be no exception," says Kanalz. "I mean, we’re scanning from original film and in some cases, like The Mighty Thor, we’re using new scans from original art."

These new Marvel Masterworks being the quality we expect from previous Marvel Masterworks? Check.

What exras will the new Marvel Masterworks include?

Now, onto the wonky stuff for the sickos (I use the term lovingly, because I am one of the comics sickos).

"Yes indeed! Where we can, we will continue that fine tradition," Kanalz says, when I asked about the glorious backmatter included in some Marvel Masterworks volumes. "In Tomb of Dracula, we’re including some scans of Gene Colan’s unused pencils (gorgeous!). In Thor, we are including pencils and inks from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, plus some other artifacts from the time, including the art from the Thunder Frog sales poster I used to have hanging in my room, from when I used to bag comics at a comic shop."

Next question - for those of us like Ted Adams and I with a ginormous collection of Marvel Masterworks already, will these new volumes look the same when slid in next to previous volumes on these sturdy shelves of ours. 

"Format is key! We want to preserve the current format so that all collectors of the line can continue their series unchanged, but we also want to bring in new readers, so are offering an updated edition for newcomers," says Kanalz, showing how Clover Press is aiming to keep what' s great about the line while also expanding it for others.

The first wave of Marvel Masterworks in the Clover Press era will be the continuation of three series — Uncanny X-Men, The Mighty Thor, and Tomb of Dracula — but they are also launching a new collection series in the line, Super-VIllain Team-Up. According to Kanalz, this is done to be ready for the December 2026 release of the Avengers: Doomsday and some things not yet announced in the broader Marvel sphere.

"There is some back and forth with Marvel with the mix, and they’ve given us a good amount of freedom. It’s important to us that fans know their series won’t be abandoned, but it’s also critical to introduce new series for collectors to jump on now," says Kanalz. "Super-Villain Team-Up is also timed around the upcoming movie release - interest in Dr. Doom should be at an all time high. But Marvel has the institutional knowledge to tell us if we fell down the wrong rabbit hole. They’ve been great partners."

Why Clover Press believes Marvel Masterworks can succeed

When news originally broke that the Marvel Masterworks line at Marvel was ending, Marvel's own executive editor Tom Brevoort was just as despondent as all of us about the line's end, but also very aware of why it came to be. The obvious question out of all of this is if Marvel Comics weren't able to make it work for themselves, how could someone else? The answer lies in the track record Kanalz, Ted Adams, and others at Clover Press have built, and also the nimbleness a smaller company would have versus a department inside a department inside a Disney.

"The economics are a little different for a scrappy boutique publisher like Clover. What might not work for Marvel could still work for us," Kanalz says, with 0% shade to a company like Marvel. And Kanalz knows; he's spent the last five years at Clover doing this with partnerships with Marvel and others, but he's also hyper aware of the flipside, previously being DC's senior VP of publishing strategy & support services.

"As the guy who spent many years planning what was published, where, in what format, and what price point, I can share that it boils down to resources, and the return on investment of those resources," Kanalz tells us. "A decision has to be made if you can dedicate those resources against what you get back in return. If I put a headcount towards Project X, will that return enough dollars? Or should I put that headcount on Project Z for a better return? OR, do we work with someone outside the organization, let them dedicate the resources, and then enjoy a return that didn’t tax our internal resources."

So what is Clover Press doing that someone Marvel sized wouldn't be able to focus on? Making it more of an experience.

"We’re adding a few things to the mix that we hope will be well received, like signed limited editions of each volume where possible," says the Clover Press publisher. "And we’re entering an era of the runs that are super interesting! We’ve also been able to offer some fun extras not available anywhere else, like our puzzles. Who doesn’t like a good puzzle to pass the time? [Clover Press co-founder] Robbie Robbins really outdid himself and has created a double-sided puzzle featuring art from Uncanny X-Men #268 by Jim Lee and Scott Williams."

Among the other extras I've been told about (or "leaked" as Hank said previously) is that Clover Press is testing out Marvel Masterworks collectors journals, which as a journal-er, a collector, and a Marvel fan, has my Spider-sense tingling.

"We’re testing out something new as part of our campaign - these are gorgeous journals with die-cut covers and pages for any kind of note-taking you’d like," Kanalz explains. "Our original concept included some extra information for collectors, but our feedback with a small dedicated group of Masterworks collectors wanted less of that, and more journal pages and art. So we hope these resonate with the Masterworks collector, as they are awesome and I want to do more of them."

Oh, I have lots of ideas and notes, including some thoughts on things Chris Claremont did in issues of Giant-Size Dracula that seemed to be test-runs on things he later did in Uncanny X-Men. For more, read my Marvel Masterworks collectors journals. 

Being handed the keys (or files in this case) to take over Marvel Comics' highly-regarded Marvel Masterworks line isn't something Hank Kanalz and the Clover Press team are taking lightly. They have seemingly made all the right moves in bringing over key people in public and behind-the-scenes, as well as consulting with several creative, publishing, and retail experts to ensure this relaunch isn't a short-term success but a long-term future.

"Doing Marvel Masterworks right is a huge undertaking and takes a lot of resources. While I’m not privy as to the specific reasons for their decision to put the line on hiatus, we were able to make it work out for us, and we are willing to take on the responsibility to continue the line," says Kanalz. "We’re really doubling down on choice. If we do this right, it will be like the line never went on hiatus, but we will also bring in new readers to collect the updated editions and really engage them and retailers to stock Masterworks."

You can pre-order these Clover Press era Marvel Masterworks now on Kickstarter.

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