The first annual was a 72-page reprint anthology that gathered superhero origin stories from the previous two years, as well as a war comics story. An introduction to the Marvel Universe of the time, it contained complete debut stories of Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Iron Man and Thor, and excerpts of the first appearances of the Hulk, Giant-Man, the red-and-gold-armor version of Iron Man, and the World War II group Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. It also contained a two-page photo gallery of many of the staff and freelancers, including Dick Ayers, Stan Lee, Don Heck, Jack Kirby, Joe Orlando, Paul Reinman, Sam Rosen, Artie Simek, Flo Steinberg, Chic Stone, Vince Colletta, Nancy Murphy of the subscription department, and college "campus representative" Debby Ackerman, and publisher Martin Goodman.