Marvel's OHC's Vs. Omnibuses / DC's Absolutes, Deluxe's Vs. Omnibuses
Me personally, I don't care much for Marvel's OHC's cause they serve no purpose. They eventually make the Omnibuses with more stuff collected within them. In sometimes a better format, meaning better paper, and tons of extras. Or, in Hickman's cause a bigger book with horrible quality almost transparent bible like paper. To be frank, it's a draw. However, with OHC's It's just an excuse from Marvel to have fans double-dip into their products. Then once they release the Omnibus like Punisher MAX, the OHC's are worth completely nothing. When a year ago they were in the hundred's range. So the investment someone made on those was all for nothing. Honestly, that's why I hate collecting comics from Marvel, cause they ALWAYS do that.
Like a great example is the new Thor series by Jason Aaron, they had standard HC's collecting 5 issues. Then they had double OHC's which collected about 12 issues. Now, they wanna make an Omnibus collecting all of it. So how many versions are you going to buy? It's seriously pointless. They should kill off making any future OHC's forever and just make Omnibuses. It doesn't make sense to keep having fans double-dip or even triple-dip, when it's the same exact product. Just a bigger size, but the same extras as before. Plus, on top of that, the single trades, and then the "Complete" or "Epic" Collections. It's like "Let's try to milk the fans for all we can" business.
DC does it right, and I'll tell you why. Certain series or certain runs are deserved to be collected in Deluxe formats. There's a lot of them that get that treatment, but they're great books. Even their Absolutes are nice, I won't say all, cause a majority of the time you're actually getting ripped off. All-Star Batman being one of them. It's 10 Issues, but the Absolute only collects 9 of those said Issues. But for the most part, in cases like Wildcat's, you do get your money's worth. I kinda wished Alex Sinclair recolored the entire book, cause he's a great colorist to Jim Lee's artwork. But I do enjoy DC's releases over Marvel's cause DC doesn't really try to screw their fans and make them buy multiple copies of something. Watchmen excluded and same with Killing Joke. The only time I felt ripped off was with Swamp Thing's HC's being how it's newspaper, but I mean that's just a minor blemish, nothing too serious.
Now, as for their Omnibuses, and their OHC's, if they could be called that. I personally just call them Omnibuses, like from Rebirth the HC's they have collecting double books. I like that a lot. That's the perfect way to collect something, without destroying it. And they do a great job of collecting those said series. Between Marvel and DC, I've been collecting more DC stuff recently besides Marvel Omnibuses and random other imprints HC's. Because DC literally gives you what you want. I remember I had asked Jim Lee himself about having a Deathstroke Omnibus collecting all of Tony S. Daniel's run. Cause it was that damn good, and low and behold, it's coming out. DC listens to their fans. Marvel, not so much.
Of course, Marvel has better HC's like in terms of an actual books quality. But as of late, not so much. DC's been winning that battle. They've improved a lot throughout the years on their products and have made them a lot more durable and more collectable. Another thing I hate about Marvel, which is completely stupid, is they have variants of almost all of their Omnibuses and so fourth. Which to me serves no purpose, unless the person buying them is a complete tool, and will buy 20 of them and resell them on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Greed in this world sickens me a lot. And I hate people who are greedy, who try to capitalize on everything to make a profit cause that piece of garbage is too lazy to find a damn job. If it's a comic shop owner, I know owners who buy up to 5 copies only. So, it's like Marvel feeds these people's greed and obsessions to make more money off of something someone else could've appreciated more. But couldn't cause that person bought them all.
But, between every single company and the actual quality of the books being produced. The best quality HC's I ever seen in my life is from Image. They give you a great product. I never had a single issue with anything Image has ever released. Same with Dark Horse, Boom Studios, IDW, they all have quality. Dark Horse has some of the thickest paper I ever seen, it's so thick you can't even set it on fire. It's almost fireproof. I noticed with certain Marvel Omnibuses, the paper shifts and gets like bent somehow. A good friend of mine had showed me some of his Omnibuses, and he's got those super nice shelves, not those cheap **** Ikea's. And the paper after a while starts deteriorating. Now, I got a ton of Omnibuses. But most of all of them are sealed. I mostly read DC HC's out of book, and mostly all Marvel stuff digitally. Unless I read it beforehand in the comic-shop I work at. Then I'll just buy it and archive it on my shelf. But yeah, Marvel's quality is pretty horrifying.
I've read Batwoman: Deluxe by Greg Rucka probably a 100 times. I enjoyed that little mini a lot. It was great, and I kinda wished he went into it with JH Williams and Haden Blackman so it was like a super team of sorts. Since Rucka is a great writer. But like that book is like still in brand new condition. It has absolutely no wear. The binding is tough as hell. It's literally indestructible. I've read Messiah Complex a few times, like probably 10 times, and the books like falling apart. Actually, I've read like Jason Aaron's Hulk Books, there's 2, and I'll say that's a great run. I hope they Omnibus it. Anyways, those books have already fallen apart completely. And I was as fragile as fragile could be. The only time I ever had an issue with DC's books was with Saga of the Swamp Thing. Which I bought replacements after I sold my old copies and fixed that.
What I'm referring to is like, when you open the books and the pages snap from the spine. Meaning like the hard page from the hardcover unglues itself, and becomes like completely messed up. So it looks like the pages are all going to fallout, I have that same problem with the MMW's books, it's like they print the books and the books are so delicate that they break upon opening them. So if they break that easily, why should anyone even invest the money on them. Most people who own MMW's don't even open up the damn books. They just leave them sealed on their shelves collecting dust, so they can sell them in the future when they need diapers for their babies or groceries for their families. Which in my head, is the only reason to buy MMW's cause they're basically money sitting in the bank, as far as opening them and reading them. I wouldn't go that far, cause those books are just awful quality printed books.
I'll take this even further, I've got some MMW's with thick glossy pages, and actual newspaper pages in the same books. Which I don't even know how that's possibe to print something like that. It's like Marvel really knows how to botch a product pretty badly. So besides Omnibuses, I will never buy anything else from Marvel. Cause it's a waste of money. You're basically throwing your money in the garbage. As far as their standard HC's like from Infinity Gauntlet and such, those are great products, but I would only buy those as box-sets. I would never buy them as like single books, cause once again, you're ripping yourself off. You have to buy everything either as a full complete set of books, or as an Omnibus to truly get your money's worth from Marvel. With DC not so much, DC makes it easier for the consumer to buy, open and read books. Most notably on the Batman Trilogy Omnibuses, those are incredible. They open each issue as if it was printed separately. I hope they print future books that way, cause it's so much easier and better to enjoy a book more, than relaxing a spine. It's basically already done for you, in a better more accessible way.