My thoughts on a Two-Omnibus set of Superior Spider-Man
During the last couple of "Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus" polls that were carried out yearly between the Marvel Masterworks Forum and our thread, I remember a few people were keen on Marvel releasing a Superior Spider-Man Omnibus which would basically consist of the three Superior Spidey OHCs. At the time, I was pretty much against it as I was pretty happy with the three solid OHCs and preferred Marvel to release alternative Spider-Man material in Omnibus format. Well, my opinion has slightly changed. I would be quite happy with a two-volume Omnibus set of Superior Spider-Man. Let me explain.
I recently finished reading the three Superior Spider-Man OHCs along with various single issues from Avenging Spider-Man and Superior Spider-Man Team-Up as well as the Superior Foes of Spider-Man Omnibus. From Avenging Spider-Man #15.1 onwards, one could easily rename the Avenging Spider-Man run as “Otto Octavius, The Superior Spider-Man”. Yes, I agree that the Superior Spider-Man issues and OHCs are pretty fine read on their own, but the Avenging issues give so much more to the overall Superior story. The same goes for SSM Team-Up, in particular issues #9-12 (#9 and #10 feature Daredevil and The Punisher in major roles) which are quite an integral part of the mini-Spidey event: “Goblin Nation”. There is Kaine’s first encounter with SpOck in the pages of SSMTU and “Scarlet Spider” and also the 3 issue specials which make up the “Arms of the Octopus” storyline when SpOck encounters the All New X-Men and the Indestructible Hulk. From my calculations, there would be 63 issues as well as all the additional material from three Spidey runs such as the gazillion number of alternative covers. A few of the issues were also oversized. Below are the issues I would like to see in the two Omnibus set. I’ve noted the number of issues from each run in brackets.
Amazing Spider-Man #698-700 (3)
Superior Spider-Man #1-31 (31)
Superior Spider-Man #6AOU (1)
Superior Spider-Man Annual #1-2 (2)
Avenging Spider-Man #15.1-22 (8)
Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #1-12 (12)
Scarlet Spider #20 (1)
Inhumanity: Superior Spider-Man #1 (1)
“The Arms of the Octopus”: SSM Special #1; ANXM Special #1; IH Special #1 (3)
Superior Foes of Spider-Man #11 (1)
TOTAL: 63 issues
As an added bonus, Amazing Spider-Man #700.1-700.5 could also be added for good measure as these issues seem to be orphaned not appearing in any collected edition I know of. That would give 68 issues, not too shabby indeed. IMHO, it would be very cool for Spidey completionists to have Marvel put all these issues together in two Omnibuses. Any thoughts?