In the late Sixties a fireball struck the town of Pederson, Illnois granting fantastic powers to the 113 children who were in utero at the time of impact. They grew up as the world watched. Labeled the Specials by the Media, their powers were monitored and catalogued by the United States Government. Public perception of them changed often. Were they the future of mankind? A scourge? A random occurrence? Heroes? Villains? Role models or simply caricatures? What would be their impact on culture and society? They were a waried as kids and adults ever are; some were more powerful, some less. As adults they became many things: a policeman, a corporate symbol, a singer, an assassin, a writer, a painter, a thief, a preacher. Some found celebrity, some notoriety, while others simply went to work and raised families like everyone else. But they all carried inside them a seed of something great. Something special. Something that made them stars. As their epic stories unfolded, there were other stories as well...of their lives and the lives of those around them. This book is about those stories. Collected here are the short stories about the Specials, a bit about their beginnings, a bit about their middles and just a little bit about their end.

    Will Yellowjacket triumph over his inner demons - or crumble under the pressure of being an Avenger?COLLECTING: AVENGERS (1963) 212-230

    Remember the good old days when Spidey's life wasn't very complicated? When evil scientists like the Jackal sought to destroy him? When Gwen Stacy showed up on his doorstep, suddenly alive? See the original clone saga unravel as Spider-Man tries to keep up!

    The New Mutants lose one of their own! And after the Marauders slaughter the Morlocks, they take on the X-Men! Collecting: New Mutants (1983) #55-61, Uncanny X-Men #220-227, X-Factor (1986) #19-26, Captain America (1968) #339, Daredevil (1964) #252, Fantastic Four (1961) #312, Incredible Hulk (1968) #340, Power Pack (1984) #35

    Marvel's melancholy muck-monster, by the man who knows him best! With the Nexus of All Realities as the ultimate staging post,prepare for the wildest journeys of your life in this fi rst volume of a complete collection of Steve Gerber's Man-Thing tales! Join the most startling swamp-creature of all in encounters with the Thing, sorcerers Dakimh and Jennifer Kale, and the most far-out fowl ever created, Howard the Duck! Plus existential angst, clashes with the modern world, and the death of a clown! COLLECTING: ASTONISHING TALES (1970) 12-13, FEAR 11-19, MARVEL TWO-INONE 1, MAN-THING (1974) 1-8; MATERIAL FROM SAVAGE TALES (1971) 1, FEAR 10, MONSTERS UNLEASHED 5

    But Silk's quest has taken her down a darker path than expected, and now she's in cahoots with the most ferocious feline in the Marvel Universe: the Black Cat! But not everyone in the Cat's criminal crew is happy about the arrangement. Nor is a certain friendly neighborhood CEO of Parker Industries, and that will bring Cindy into conflict with Spider-Man and the Goblin King! What could have led her to this? Who is Espectro? And will Cindy go so far there's no redeeming the Sinister Silk? Collecting: Silk (2016) 1-6 & material from Amazing Spider-Man 1

    The X-Men follow the trail of Rogue's nightmares to a hidden corner of the globe where the great dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous Ages continue to rule.

    Before founding his school for young mutants, Xavier abandoned his only son, David, a mutant with uncontrollable reality-warping abilities. Now, David has returned, looking to exact revenge on the father who left him - and he's willing to eradicate anyone who stands in his way. Will the X-Men be forced to kill Xavier's son to end his threat against the world? Following the tragedies of their world tour, the X-Men seek the calming protection of Xavier's school - but their suspicions of his methods only increase. Xavier's mental blocks on student Jean Grey's psychic abilities continue to crumble, and she grows increasingly unstable - plagued by visions of a world engulfed in the flames of a fiery phoenix. When the X-Men finally meet Xavier's mysterious financial backers, Jean's hallucinations become reality as the otherworldly Phoenix takes possession of the teenage telepath. Also included in this volume is a bonus tale of Gambit, a Cajun street hustler who must use his mutant gifts to protect a homeless boy in great danger. Collects Ultimate X-Men #13-25.

    Spider-Man is swept away from his everyday troubles into a fantasy world by an eternally 12-year-old sorceress who needs his encouragement that she has matured enough to advance in her profession.

    Gambit plays his cards right and vaults into his own kinetically-charged solo adventures! He's a lover and a thief, but what else does ragin' Cajun Remy LeBeau get up to when he isn't hangin' wit' de X-Men? Would you believe raiding lost temples of doom? Clashing with the deadly X-Cutioner? Or teaming up with Sabretooth? Still, there's always time for the ladies, like old friend Storm and his favorite cherie Rogue...but who is Gambit's gaseous green guardian?Collects Gambit (1999) #1/2, 1-11, Gambit Annual '99, Marvel Authentix: Gambit #1, Material from X-Men Unlimited (1993) #18

    Collects Daredevil (1964) #182-184

    Collects Thor #146-152, Amazing Adventures #1-10, Avengers #95, Marvel Super-Heroes #15, Not Brand Ecch #6, 12

    Representing planets throughout the cosmos, these young heroes must band together to protect the galaxy from space-born threats as great as the universe itself.

    Can Wolverine get her to the border alive? Or will his greatest failure doom an entire nation? In Better To Give, a heavily armed suicide cult - clad in elf outfits - has taken hostage a mid-Manhattan department store on Christmas Eve and is threatening to blow the place sky high. Among the shoppers: Logan, who's just itching to sink his (Santa) claws into someone after enduring the Yuletide rush. Should be easy for a damn-near invulnerable force of nature to save the day, right? Think again. All is not as it seems, as a spoiled billionaire's daughter is about to find out, and the true meaning of Christmas will be spelt out... in blood. In The House of Blood and Sorrow, Wolverine lies at the edge of death in a rural Nebraska cornfield after crashing to Earth in the wake of a clash with a giant robot at the edge of the atmosphere, lapsing in and out of a coma as his body desperately tries to heal. And that's when things really get bad. The men who sent the robot to destroy Wolverine have come to finish the job. The townsfolk who witnessed the crash have gathered up a mob to hunt down and destroy the alien that's landed. And Wolverine's fate just might rest in the hands of the strange little girl who first found him in that dark cornfield. A strange little girl with an affinity for taking care of odd creatures - and whose family holds a deep, dark secret hidden from the light of day. And in "The Healing," Logan lies gutted in a Northwest forest, surrounded by wolves and clinging onto hope and sanity as his body goes about the complicated work of repairing itself. It's not as easy as you might think.Collecting: Wolverine 41, 49; Giant-Size Wolverine 1; X-Men Unlimited 12

    A killer stalks the town's children, leaving a trail far gorier than Spider-Man is accustomed to. With Wolverine in the wings, watching for the Wendigo, it may come to claws vs claws before the true blood-shedder is found.