(W) Stan Lee (A) Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko Now back in print and timed for its 50th anniversary-the landmark book Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee! Originally published in 1974, this volume features the first appearance of characters who have dominated the pantheon of Marvel's modern storytelling mythology-Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, and Doctor Strange-along with a second Silver Age tale featuring these special heroes, all hand-picked and introduced by the one and only Stan Lee, and serving as an essential showcase for writers and artists such as Stan himself, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, and Marie Severin. Origins of Marvel Comics highlights both the lasting greatness of these iconic characters as well as the monumental contributions of the talented creators who launched an entire storytelling universe.

(W) John Jackson Miller Starfleet was everything for Cristóbal Rios - until one horrible, inexplicable day when it all went wrong. Aimless and adrift, he grasps at a chance for a future as an independent freighter captain in an area betrayed by the Federation, the border region with the former Romulan Empire. His greatest desire: to be left alone. But solitude isn't in the cards for the captain of La Sirena, who falls into debt to a roving gang of hoodlums from a planet whose society is based on Prohibition-era Earth. And while his meeting with Jean-Luc Picard is years away, Rios finds himself drawing on the Starfleet legend's experiences when he discovers a mystery that began on one of the galaxy's most important days...