Exactly why the edit "and earlier" :P I got into comics mid 90s and it was hell trying to keep up with all the #1 variants. Ugh.
I got into them in the mid-70's - then dropped them as I hit adolescence as I didn't want to be "uncool." (It would be mortifying to be caught by peers at age 13 reading a comic book - "they're for kids!")
Then a friend who I began drawing comics with in high school started bringing in books to show me (he wasn't embarrassed!) He'd start telling me about the new books & characters - I even remember he was the first person to tell me about this "Wolverine" - a superhero who had steel claws come out of the back of his hands (this I had to see).
Thus the addiction began anew but with a new fervor - I even started to subscribe to titles.
All through college I'd make trips to flea markets & malls just to go comic shopping - it really was something like taking drugs!
In 1988 I actually got a job in the industry working for a local color separation company (back when they were done by hand) that did work for mostly DC Comics. (Nothing helps you begin to dislike something when it becomes part of a job.) The cool thing was they'd give a handful of comics with our paychecks, but it was always low-selling titles!
The 90's hit hard as I didn't realize what was happening - I too was buying multiple variants, "1st Issue Collector's Items!," and giving in to the speculation (not fully realizing that the only collector's items that I had which had any worth were those very first books I bought in 1975 - if only I hadn't stopped buying them at that time!)
Did my first convention (as a vendor) in 1994 - all everyone kept asking me was if I had any
Spawn! (I did not!) By the mid-2000's, trying to sell my collections at shows became a losing proposition since most of my 70's stuff had already been picked through and sold.
In the meantime I was advised to try selling on eBay - where I moved most of my collection over the next decade or so - I still have a couple long boxes left consisting of unmovable 90's crap
or items I don't want to part with.
Man... I didn't mean to go off on a tangent. But yeah, I have a problem with most superhero movies because I'm somewhat dedicated to the source materials as I knew them.
However, I do love these color Marvel Epic Collections as I'm now able to (affordably) look at a lot of stuff from the Silver & Bronze ages that came just before my time as a kid collector.