Marvel Comics’ traveling exhibition has moved from the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where my wife and I saw it. Outside were banners and statues:





They had plenty of costumes on display from MCU movies. My favorite was Doctor Strange, which was full of gorgeous embroidery. As you might expect, Chris Hemsworth’s are large, and Scarlett Johannson’s are small. There are plenty of pictures of that sort of thing online though.

The comic books were mainly Silver Age, with some Bronze and Modern mixed in. They had a few key issues:





The main attraction for me was the many pages of original art, borrowed from collectors, most notably actor Eric Roberts and Jim Halperin. Below are thumbnails; I can post larger images and details from any of these if someone wishes it. The original art fell into several categories. There were cover pages:



















Interior pages, including some really key ones:



















Sketches and preliminary work, including one that called Frank Castle “The Executioner”:







Promotional pieces By Kirby and others:









Some of the pieces revealed how they were assembled by collage or required modification at a late stage:








The gift shop had a dozen “True Believer” individual issue reprints for a dollar each, which was smart. Note that Carol Danver’s appearance in Captain Marvel has been titled with her name instead of his. Most of the choices made good sense. The worst choice was having the marriage of Jean Grey and Scott Summers represent X-Men. It’s a very talky issue with dozens of characters. Why didn’t they choose a stand-alone issue with a smaller cast? I’m not a huge fan of the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine series overall, but I must admit it would be an easy point of entry for new readers.



If you can make it to Philadelphia, check it out! Well worth the trip.