I'm a big fan of the softcovers, both because they look so spiffy with their painted covers and because of the affordable price. I think I prefered the paper stock used at the beginning of the run, but that might have been because I was used to the hardcovers previous to this. I noticed a big switch to matte stock with Avengers Vol. 3, I believe it was, but since then I think they've found a happy medium between the two. The last volume I purchased was Captain Marvel Vol. 1 and I was slightly dismayed to find that the lettering looks a little fuzzy and stratchy in some places if you look closely at it. But that may have been an issue with the scan, printing, or even the original artwork, and is not necessarily due to paper type.