Marvel Masterpieces
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Marvel Masterpieces is the name of several subsequent sets of
trading cards A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other ...
, printed during 1992-2008, depicting characters and events from
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
. Featuring large, vividly drawn card fronts and backs detailing
trivia Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value. It can be contrasted with general knowledge and common sense. Latin Etymology The ancient Romans used the word ''triviae'' to describe where one road split or forked ...
, each card showcased a different personality from Marvel's body of work. There was also a set of pop-up cards, distributed in sets of six with the Marvel Activity Sets. They measured about .


Series 1 - 1992

The first set, which came out in 1992, consisted entirely of portraits painted by
Joe Jusko Joe Jusko (; born September 1, 1959) is an American artist known for his realistic, highly detailed painted fantasy, pin-up, and cover illustrations, mainly in the comic book industry. Jusko painted the 1992 Marvel Masterpieces trading cards, the ...
and was published by Skybox. The set included 100 standard cards, and 5 "Battle" Spectra Cards. There was a factory-tin set of the cards which also contained 5 "Lost Marvel" cards that could only be found in those tins. There were 6 promo cards and 3 pre-production prototype cards too, which were only available to dealers and/or available as free with ''Wizard'' magazine (#13 Psylocke) and comics books (Marvel Age #118 Hulk) etc. The artwork from series 1 was also released by Marvel as 4 collections printed at standard comic size, titled "The Marvel Masterpieces Collection (1-4)" allowing it to be seen in greater detail. The production run of sealed boxes is 350,000 according to the gold-colored stickers (within the factory applied cellophane wrapper) used to indicate that a box is factory sealed. The production run of tins (containing the "Lost Marvel" cards) is 35,000 according to the gold-colored sticker found on the bottom of the tin, within the factory cellophane seal.


Battle Spectra Cards

* 1-D: Thing vs. Hulk * 2-D: Silver Surfer vs. Thanos * 3-D: Wolverine vs. Sabretooth * 4-D: Spider-Man vs. Venom * 5-D: Captain America vs. Red Skull


"Lost Marvel" Cards

* LM-1: Scarlet Witch * LM-2: Feral * LM-3: Deathbird * LM-4: Typhoid Mary * LM-5: Jubilee


Promo Cards

* Captain America * Hulk * Psylocke * Silver Surfer * Spider-Man * Wolverine


Prototype Cards

* Hulk * Spider-Man * Wolverine


Series 2 - 1993

The set included 90 cards, along with 8 X-Men 2099 "Dyna-Etch" cards, randomly inserted throughout packs. The artwork from series 2 (featuring multiple well-known comic, fantasy and sci-fi artists) was also released by Marvel as three collections printed at standard comic size, titled "The Marvel Masterpieces 2 Collection (1-3)" allowing it to be seen in greater detail.


Dyna Etch cards

* S1: Meanstreak * S2: Cerebra * S3: Krystalin * S4: Metalhead * S5: Serpentina * S6: Bloodhawk * S7: Skullfire * S8: Xi'an


Prototype Cards

She-Hulk, Daredevil, Venom (Black printing San Diego Comic Con), and Hulk 2099.


Series 3 - 1994

This set was drawn entirely by
Greg and Tim Hildebrandt Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, known as the Brothers Hildebrandt (born January 23, 1939), are American twin brothers who worked collaboratively as fantasy and science fiction artists for many years. They produced illustrations for comic books, movie p ...
. It contained two subsets: 10 Holofoils which came in silver, gold and bronze variations, depending on where they were purchased, and 9 PowerBlast cards. This set was also the first to introduce "parallel sets" to the series. All 140 base cards came with a parallel gold-foil "Signature" card which came one-to-a-pack. This concept was also used in other Marvel card sets. One exception: there are Jumbo and Walmart retail store boxes of the Hildebrandt 1994 set, and those have Gold and Bronze versions, respectively, of the usually silver Holofoil cards. Sealed boxes of those non-hobby or standard retail kind, especially the Walmart retail store ones with the bronze foil versions, are quite valuable. Walmart boxes have been known to sell for thousands of dollars on Ebay, Amazon and other various websites.


Holofoil Cards

# Captain America # Carnage # Daredevil # Hulk # Iron Man # Punisher # Scarlet Witch # Spider-Man # Venom # War Machine


PowerBlast Cards

* PB1: Apocalypse * PB2: Archangel * PB3: Cable * PB4: Cyclops * PB5: Gambit * PB6: Magneto * PB7: Rogue * PB8: Sabretooth * PB9: Wolverine


Series 4 - 1995

This set consisted of 150 standard cards, 22 "Canvas" cards, 8 "Holoflash" cards, and 2 "Mirage" cards. Artwork for the set was done by four artists: Dave Devries, Dimitrios Patelis, Peter Scanlan and Nelson. Each artist painted 38 different characters that the other artists also painted plus 9 unique characters that were only painted once. Continuing from the previous set, these cards came with parallel cards this time in the form of "E-Motion" signatures. The two mirage cards are rare, coming one to every 360 packs depending on the ratio. They are highly sought-after. These boxes have increased highly in value and are very much sought by collectors as the 1996 Marvel masterpieces boxes. Since both years have limited print run the 1995 and 1996 are by far the rarest of the Marvel boxes to date. It was unknown at the time of production but now to a list count average found and credited.


Canvas Cards

# Archangel # Beast # Bishop # Cable # Daredevil # Galactus # Gambit # Ghost Rider # Human Torch # Ice Man # Invisible Woman # Jubilee # Magneto # Namor # Professor X # Psylocke # Punisher # Rogue # Silver Surfer # Spider-Man # Thing # War Machine


Holoflash Cards

# Apocalypse # Carnage # Dr. Doom # Mandarin # Mr. Sinister # Sabretooth # Thanos # Venom


Mirage Cards

# Classic Avengers: Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor # X-Men: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, and Wolverine


Series 5 - 1996

This set included 100 standard cards, 6 "Gallery" cards, 6 "Double Impact" cards, and 9 artwork redemption cards. The artwork redemption cards were extremely rare and bore the text "Congratulations! You have just won an original piece of painted art from the Marvel Masterpieces 1996 set!" This series was drawn entirely by
Boris Vallejo Boris Vallejo (born January 8, 1941) is a Peruvian-American painter who works in the science fiction, fantasy, and erotica genres. His hyper-representational paintings have appeared on the covers of numerous science fiction and fantasy fiction ...
and
Julie Bell Julie Bell (born October 21, 1958) is an American fine artist, illustrator, photographer, bodybuilder and wildlife painter. Bell is also a fantasy artist and a representative of the heroic fantasy and fantastic realism genres. Bell has won Ches ...
.


Gallery Cards

# Cyclops # Hulk # Magneto # Sabretooth # Spider-Man # Wolverine


Double Impact Cards

# Bishop/Beast # Punisher/Psylocke # Rogue/Human Torch # Silver Surfer/Captain America # Storm/Spider-Man # Wolverine/Venom


Artwork Redemption Cards

# Beast # Elektra # Gambit # Human Torch # Silver Surfer # Spider-Man # Storm # Venom # Wolverine


Series 6 - Oct 2007

A new series bearing the name "Marvel Masterpieces" was released by
Upper Deck The Upper Deck Company, LLC (colloquially as Upper Deck and Upper Deck Authenticated, Ltd. in the UK), founded in 1988, is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards. Its headquarters are in Carlsbad, California, United State ...
(UDE) in October 2007. Most (if not all) of the art used for the trading cards is taken from artwork which UDE already owns and has used in its
Vs. System Vs. System (short for Versus System), also written as VS System and abbreviated as VS, is a collectible card game designed by Upper Deck Entertainment (UDE). In the game, players build and play a deck of Vs. System cards in an attempt to win a g ...
TCG. This set consists of 90 base cards, 9 Spider-Man subset inserts, 9 X-Men subset inserts, 3-artist splash page subsets (
triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) t ...
s) featuring Art by
Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which he collaborated wi ...
, Arthur Adams, and
Drew Struzan Drew Struzan (; born March 18, 1947) is an American artist, illustrator and cover designer. He is known for his more than 150 movie posters, which include ''The Shawshank Redemption'', ''Blade Runner'', ''Mallrats'', as well as films in the ''In ...
. Each base card in the set has two parallel versions: a "holo-foil" version, and a gold-foil border version. Each of the Spider-Man and X-Men subsets has a holo-foil subset version. Additionally, there are randomly inserted "Artist Sketch Cards" each featuring an original sketch by a noted artist. These are all one-of-a-kind. It is not known exactly how many sketch cards were put into circulation, but there should be roughly the same number as the boxes, 13,000, since the odds on finding one is approximately 1:36 packs, or 1 per box. Also, the art from the Alex Ross splash subset was made into ashcan box-toppers (black-and-white versions) and inserted randomly 1 per box, not in a pack. Plus, the artwork from the Art Adams splash subset was made into ashcan case-toppers, one included per factory case. Each Hobby pack (packs bought from hobby/comic shops) contains a card with a code for 100 UDE points which can be redeemed at www.udepoints.com and then spent on various items in the ude points store.


Series 7 - July 2008

After the successful re-launch of the Marvel Masterpieces set in 2007, Upper Deck decided to release another set. The second set, Marvel Masterpieces 2 came out in July 2008. This set consisted of a 90-card base set, 9 Marvel Heroines Chase Set, 9 Avengers Chase Set, 5 Fantastic Four Movie Memorabilia Chase Set, and 3 Hulk Chase Cards and 3 Iron Man Chase Cards. Also available one per box was a hand-drawn sketch card drawn by an artist. There were more sketch cards with this set than the 2007 set because this saw a release of 18,000 boxes as opposed to 13,000 in 2007. Upper Deck plans on releasing Marvel Masterpieces 3 on December 9, 2008. 3 Hulk Chase Cards and 3 Iron Man Chase Cards
Sealed hobby boxes contain chase cards "Hulk A" and "Iron Man A" (1:18 packs)
Target packs contain chase cards "Hulk B" and "Iron Man B"
WalMart packs contain chase cards "Hulk C" and "Iron Man C"


Series 8 - December 2008

Series 8 has 90 base-set cards consisting of "Bring on the Bad Guys" and "Battles", and with the following Chase cards: 9 "Bronze" Marvel Knights cards, 9 "Silver" X-Men Secret Identities cards, 9 "Gold" Marvel Moments, 27 Writer Autograph cards, Artist Sketch cards, Promo card Spider-Man.


Series 9 - 2016

Marvel Masterpieces 2016 will be released June 29, 2016. Artwork for the entire set will be done by Joe Jusko. Article explaining Relaunch Marvel Masterpieces 2016 https://comicsalliance.com/upper-deck-marvel-masterpieces-2016-review/


Series 10 - 2018

https://www.cardboardconnection.com/2018-upper-deck-marvel-masterpieces-trading-cards


2020

Upper Deck Entertainment released the 2020 Marvel Masterpieces set in September 2020, featuring original art by
David Palumbo David Palumbo (born 1982) is an American illustrator and fine artist. Life Palumbo is the son of science fiction scholar Donald Palumbo and illustrator Julie Bell, brother of artist Anthony Palumbo, and stepson of illustrator Boris Vallejo. He l ...
.


References

{{Reflist


External links


"The Marvel Masterpieces Collection (1-4)"
newkadia.com. * https://comicsalliance.com/upper-deck-marvel-masterpieces-2016-review/ * https://www.cardboardconnection.com/2018-upper-deck-marvel-masterpieces-trading-cards Works based on Marvel Comics Trading cards