In 2006, (and into 2007,) Scholastic Books teamed up with Marvel Comics to form the Marvel Super Heroes Collector's Club; a subscription book (and collectibles) club, where you would sign up to receive 10 shipments (with a low price first shipment, and then 9 additional - and more expensive - deliveries) of Book Club goodies every month.
Initial Shipment
Including: the first of a series of 10 story "chapter" books, a magazine, a sticker sheet, some toys, a game board and pieces for a "battle" game, a set of collectible cards in an illustrated tin case AND a poster (which when combined with the other 9 posters form a JUMBO-size mega-poster image)!
Of course, the primary (and, frankly - ONLY) reason that I signed up for the service was in the fleeting hope that - eventually - there would be some DOCTOR STRANGE content in one (or more) of the shipments.
As most DOC-fans of any substantial length of time will readily attest, there is a dearth of Dr. Strange content when it comes to Marvel general merchandise. Sure, Wolverine, Hulk, Captain America and Spider-Man are on everything and anything, but the chances of Doctor Strange being shown on any merchandise item are slim-to-nil.
However, hope springs eternal for the die-hard fan, and as luck would have it, a part of the initial shipment contained a sticker sheet that had a sticker featuring Doctor Strange!
Apologies for some of these poor pics.
My photography staging area is currently a disaster area, and I needed to get these done quickly.
Doc shown 2nd row - 1st sticker on the left.
This was enough to keep me coming back for more shipments - every month - for 10 months... in the slim hope that there would be (there HAD to be) more.
The fourth shipment was a HULK shipment - with book, poster segment and magazine all featuring the green goliath, and it made sense to me that with their long, historied connection, that Dr. Strange would be featured somewhere therein.
Disappointingly, the audio play that I featured last post was Doc's only contribution to that shipment.
But, still... that kept my hope alive.
But, with shipment after shipment coming with absolutely no Doctor Strange content, I was ready to cut my losses and cancel my subscription. I kept on, however, due to my paranoia that once I canceled, that a Doctor Strange related shipment would have been the very next one. And so I waited it out... all the way to the end.
Good thing that I did.
For the 10th and final shipment was what could be considered the "everything but the kitchen sink" shipment. The "everybody else" assortment.
It featured a Silver Surfer magazine...
And while the magazine didn't have anything with Dr. Strange within (surprising since there was also the long, historied relationship between the Surfer & Strange as Defenders) the shipment did contain several items of STRANGE swag!
Like every other shipment, this one also came with a sticker sheet.
In an ironic symmetry, this last shipment's sticker sheet (like the first shipment's) would also feature a Doctor Strange sticker.
Doc shown 2nd row - 2nd sticker from the right.
Each shipment would also come with a pack of cards for a CCG, and this shipment would finally contain a card for Doctor Strange.
While that would be a nice treat (and a rare addition to my insane collection of Strange-related collectible cards), an even better treat would also lie within this shipment:
The storybook that featured DOCTOR STRANGE (and the Avengers) vs GALACTUS.
The story featured a pot-lock / potpourri of heroes, most closely resembling the line-up of the "Bendis-vengers" in a battle to save the Earth from Galactus and his many heralds (none of which were heralds ever seen before in comics canon). Actually, while the book title is listed as the Avengers vs Galactus, is was really "Everybody vs Galactus", since the devourer of worlds would be faced by not only the World's Mightiest Heroes, but also the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and many solo heroes.
Doctor Strange is written as dealing with several of the heralds, so that the heroes can take the battle to Galactus. Here's a pic with an excerpt:
click to read
And last, but certainly not least, the shipment also had a mini-poster which featured the DEFENDERS (minus the Hulk, who is on his own poster) versus Galactus!
click to Galactus-size
This 11" x 17" mini-poster was the final segment of the 22" x 85" mega-image battle-scene that would be made when all ten posters were aligned in their proper positions.
click to mega-size!
Sadly, the club shuttered not long after this final shipment - depriving
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