Omnibus Ride (Prelude) - Mar 21, 2021

     While for the most part I'm comfortable with transitioning to a digital collection for comics -- having sold off my collection of side-stapled comics years ago -- between gifts and bargain-hunting 2020 into 2021 has seen me slowly building a collection of Marvel Omnibus editions.
     These collect long runs of series, with associated tie-ins, along with letters pages, as, depending on the era, they often contained fuller explanations of events in earlier issues as part of the back-and-forth with letter-writing fans. My preference would have been for them to include the Bullpen Bulletins pages, too, as they also contained a great deal of history. But, they made the format decision they did, so they are what they are.
     Will this turn out to be an impulse I'll regret? Hopefully not.
     While I hope to get to them sooner, I like to think that I'll be able to spend as much time as I want with them in retirement. At the moment I haven't yet removed the shrinkwrap from that Avengers vol 4, either of the Uncanny X-Men vols, the Silver Surfer nor the Simonson Thor collection. I'm not pointedly "saving" them for later, but I haven't mustered the time and comfortable space to really sit down with them the way I want to. I've mostly been plodding my way through Avengers volume 3 so far, which really doesn't start to click until the two-part Sons of the Serpent story in issues 73 & 74, and even then mostly in the second half, once the John Buscema/Tom Palmer team's there for the visuals. Alternately, I started to go through the early material in the Byrne FF volume -- which leads with a great deal of mostly less-than-great material in the years before Byrne got to fully take over the title.
     The image above is the current shelf of Marvel omnibus volumes. In time, I want to move through individual volumes -- the level of detail yet to be determined, and likely varying with the collection.
     For today, I just want to roll through what's in the collection so far. Moving from left to right:

     Avengers Omnibus vol. 3. (Collecting Avengers nos.59-88, Incredible Hulk #140, Marvel Super-Heroes #17, and some material from Not Brand Echh #12.)
     Avengers Omnibus vol.4, which covers from the Kree-Skrull War through the Avengers-Defenders War.
     Captain America Omnibus vol 1 (Collecting the Cap stories from Tales of Suspense nos. 99-100, Captain America nos. 100-113, and Not Brand Echh #3.)
     Doctor Strange Omnibus vol 1 (Collecting the Dr. Strange stories from Strange Tales nos. 110-111, 114-146, and Amazing Spider-man Annual #2.)
     Fantastic Four Omnibus vol 1 (Collecting Fantastic Four nos 1-30, and Fantastic Four Annual #1)
     Fantastic Four John Byrne Omnibus vol 1 (Collecting Marvel Team-Up nos. 61-62, Marvel Two-In-One #50, Fantastic Four nos. 215-218, 220-221, 232-262, Fantastic Four Annual #17, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-man #42, Avengers 233, Thing #2, Alpha Flight #4.) I was less than happy that this copy didn't have its dust jacket, as that wasn't part of the seller's info.
     Uncanny X-Men Omnibus vol 1 (Giant-Size X-Men no.1, X-Men nos.94-131, and X-Men Annual 3)
     Uncanny X-Men Omnibus vol 2 (Collecting X-Men 132-141, X-Men Annual nos 4-5, Uncanny X-Men nos. 142-153, Avengers Annual #10, Marvel Fanfare nos. 1-4, Marvel Treasury Edition nos. 26-27, Marvel Team-Up #100, Bizarre Adventures #27, and Phoenix: The Untold Story #1.)
     X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Omnibus* (Collecting Uncanny X-Men (1981) 302-321, X-Men (1991) 40-41, Cable (1993) 20, X-Men Alpha (1995) 1, Amazing X-Men (1995) 1-4, Astonishing X-Men (1995) 1-4, Factor X (1995) 1-4, Gambit & the X-Ternals (1995) 1-4, Generation Next (1995) 1-4, Weapon X (1995) 1-4, X-Calibre (1995) 1-4, X-Man (1995) 1-4, X-Men Omega (1995) 1, Age of Apocalypse: The Chosen (1995), X-Men Ashcan (1995) 2)
     The Silver Surfer Omnibus vol 1 (Collecting Silver Surfer 1-18, material from Fantastic Four Annual 5, and Not Brand Echh 13)
     The Mighty Thor Walt Simonson Omnibus vol 1 (Collecting Thor 337-355, 357-369, 371-382, and Balder the Brave  1-3)

     Currently on the way I have:
         The first New Mutants Omnibus, comprising their debut graphic novel, issues 1-34 of their series, their first Annual, a couple Marvel Team-Up appearances, Uncanny X-Men 160, 167, 180, 189, and 193, and the 4-issue Magik miniseries from '83. Honestly, that should quite tidily give me all of the New Mutants material I'll be interested in having in a physical format. Much of the drive for this was in the issues with Bill Sienkiewicz artwork.

         The first volume of the Defenders Omnibus, with the proto-Defenders team-up (Subby, Hulk and the Silver Surfer) from Sub-Mariner 34 & 35, Marvel Feature 1-3, Defenders 1-19, and Avengers 116-118, with small piece from issue 115. In their effort to make each of these volumes as complete as possible, this means that I'll have the Avengers-Defenders War arc both here and in that fourth volume of Avengers, where they've also included the appropriate Defenders issues. This volume's set to be released toward the end of April, and I'm currently told it'll be arriving on its official release date.
         I will be very interested in seeing a second volume from this series, as that would hit the sweet, sweet spot of the Steve Gerber issues -- both of the main series and the Giant-Size editions that were part of that era, presumably with some of the related tie-ins, such as an appropriate issue or two of Marvel Two-In-One.
     While there's a good deal of material I'm interested in revisiting in this first volume, if it came down to a choice between this and what would be in the second volume, I'd have easily and quickly chosen the later, better material. Ideally, in time, I'll have both.

     Expected well before that, though I haven't gotten a shipping notice yet, I bought vol. 1 of the Moon Knight Omnibus. That was another purchase made on a whim, in part because a relatively great price came my way, and because aside from the notion of collecting so much of that Moench & Sienkiewicz material (issues 1-20 of his first series), it includes his earlier appearances in the '70s, many of which flew under my radar/buying habits.
     I hope we get a second volume for Moon Knight, which presumably would wrap that run of the title, eighteen issues, maybe hit some other cross-over appearances, and probably roll into his follow-up series, which IIRC was the short-lived (6 issues) Fist of Khonshu, which had a different creative team and of which I have virtually no memory. I mostly remember friend Pat M. noting that he couldn't see fans pleasantly mustering a familiar nickname for the series as "Fist." (This was around the same time that Marvel had pushed yet another Spider-man series on us with Web of Spider-man. Referencing "Web" seemed at least marginally smoother than "Fist." As the new Spidey title ended up lasting 130 issues, I guess it worked that way for others, too.)
     The primary drive in seeing a second MK volume would be to follow Bill Sienkiewicz's artistic evolution. The changes in his style over the course of his Moon Knight run make for a phenomenal arc. All these years later, and I can't think of another instance where I so clearly saw someone's work blossom and come into its own as we traveled month to month. His early work on the title is distinctive, but was so clearly aping Neal Adams' work as to be blatant, though not to at all say there were swipes. And, hey, if someone was going to do action comics, especially back then, aspiring to rival Neal was to aim well and high. No complaints. But seeing Bill's work become so much more fluid and expressive, and to have it happen on a title like Moon Knight, where we had little history, and nearly all of what I'd seen at that point was via Bill's work, was a joyful experience. He and Moench, at least judging by the results, really seemed to mesh well. For the next leg of Bill's artistic transformation it would be a skip over to the New Mutants volume, and flip to issue no.18 of their series, within.

     Off in July and beyond (roughly -- they're pre-orders) I'll be getting:

         Captain America Omnibus vol.3, which will be the wonderful Gerber and Englehart issues, including '50s Cap & Bucky and the Secret Empire arc, leading to Nomad, and everything up 'til just before Jack Kirby returned. Captain America nos.149-192, and material from Giant-Size Captain America #1 and FOOM #8.
         If I ever go for vol.2 of the Cap Omnibus series it'll largely be out of a sense of completion. That was a much less-focused stretch, though it did include the debut of Sam Wilson (the Falcon), and the start of their official team-ups, and a visually interesting stretch of issues with Gene Colan art. That was followed by a stretch of John Romita Sr. issues which I know some hold in high esteem but which never suited me as really working for these characters. It includes Steve Rogers' time as a police officer, too, which is more a point of historical interest than an especially good storytelling decision.

         Fantastic Four Omnibus vol.2, collecting issues 31-60, and Annuals 2-4 - arguably much of the peak Lee & Kirby Fantastic Four output. This period saw the FF's wedding, the expanded origin of Doctor Doom (including his being monarch of Latveria), the debut of the Frightful Four, the Inhumans and their Hidden Land, the Silver Surfer and Galactus, the Black Panther and his kingdom of Wakanda, Klaw, the return of the original Human Torch, and so much more. Considerable universe building not only for this series but for the Marvel Universe itself. This volume and no. 3 were to be the seeds for so, so much that would blossom for decades to come.
     In this case I went with the Kirby cover version, though I can't recall how much this was a matter of the alternate version's cover and how much the price point. This being another case of locking in the pre-order to both assure the order and a lower price, some of those details have been lost.
 

        Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 3. This contains Fantastic Four issues 61-93, Annuals 5-7**, and material from Not Brand Echh 5-7. This will be the bulk of the remaining Lee-Kirby material, starting with some of their peak works and moving into what I can't help but see as an obvious decline -- though still fondly remembered. I decided to go with the Alex Ross cover, since the Jack Kirby one was just the cover from one of issue 82, and I'll have that in the volume itself.
         Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 4. This volume wraps the final moments of the Lee-Kirby era, then hits the transitional period. It covers from issue 94 (with the addition of the last, lasting Lee-Kirby character, Agatha Harkness', introduction) through issue 125, along with Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure, which was a fleshing out of the true, last Lee-Kirby story, that at the time was unfinished and so portions of it were cannibalized as part of a couple of the original series issues that are also part of this volume, involving Janus: The Nega-Man.
  

     There I went with the Art Adams cover, which was his interpretation of FF #100 -- the Kirby original of which was the other version offered, but, again, is part of the volume's contents.
     My current expectation is that I'll tap out on the FF Omnibus volumes beyond this -- if they even bother to offer them, but who knows? I've yet to really revisit the wave of issues that followed those in the years since I read them when they were new, though I still have access to them all in digital format.
     Way off in late September I have a lock on the reissue of The Amazing Spider-man's Omnibus vol. 3's reissue, though the cover image they solicited was all wrong. That should be covering issues 68 though 104, which included a Stone Tablet story, the debut of the Black Widow's new look, the Death of Captain Stacy, the Comics Code-busting drug issues, and the first appearance of Morbius. In time, and with another round of reissues, I could see getting the first two volumes of this series, too. They'd be ones worth sitting down with to revisit in-depth, and to soak in the details again. The fourth volume would be of interest, too. Beyond that... not so much.

     Looking ahead, aside from the notes scattered above, I'll also be watching for a Dr. Strange Omnibus volume 2, which should take me through the rest of his run in Strange Tales, including it becoming full-issue Dr. Strange stories (continuing the Strange Tales numbering), feeding into a couple cross-overs when he was between series, then his Marvel Premiere run (issues 3-14), then, space permitting, starting to roll into his 1974 launch of Dr. Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts.
     Other than that, I could see looking for what would likely be in a second and maybe third volume of Thor material, trying to capture the best of the Lee-Kirby team with that character. A first volume of that would have those early, lightweight stories, but depending on the amount of issues they work in it could easily start to reach the Journey Into Mystery issues where the title got good.
     Marvel's been cycling through re-issues of these omnibus volumes, which is good because it's ridiculous what people are able to ask for ones once they've gone out of print. Even just the rise in price I've seen on some of the ones I've pre-ordered is almost silly.
     Primarily I've been finding better prices by shopping at Things From Another World and cheapgraphicnovels.com, though I still manage to find the occasional deal through Amazon from time to time. The Honey app used to be more useful in bringing me deals, but in recent months the quality and consistency of operation for that has dropped off severely. If you've found a good (price and reliability) vendor, I'd be happy to hear about it. (If on the other hand you want to preach to me about supporting my local comics shop, please be aware that you'll be wasting more of your time than mine.)

* I know, an extremely unlikely element in my library, but it was a gift from good friend Eric G., representing for him a fondly-remembered story arc -- and certainly one that the X-Men franchise has taken buckets back to repeatedly in the years since. I'd later reciprocated by giving him a copy of the Simonson Thor volume - a couple years before I got around to getting one for myself!

** I'm wondering if this was a typo - some confusion between the Annuals and the Not Brand Ecch selections, because to the best of my recollection Annual 7 (and through no. 10) were just reprint collections. The only new material in that 7th Annual were four pages of photographs of nearly everyone tied in as the Marvel Bullpen around that time. It's not Fantastic Four-specific material, but a cool capture of history.