Marvel Collected Editions

[Rich]

Think Superior Spidey also popped up in the Morbius series.

[TomSlick]

You don't know if they won't include Team-Up. It really would be the only reason to do an omnibus if they were to include at least some of his other appearances. I loved the Superior Six issues.

No, I "don't know if they won't include" Team-Up - no one does, but based on past precedent they will not include it.

As far as it being the "only reason to do an omnibus," I'd like to think that you are either joking or you are simply not paying attention.

[Canucked]

Superior spidey omni will be the three OHCs taped together (and the two later issues if they aren't in OHC3) Team up will be lost in time. foes will hopefully get an OHC.

[Legion564]

Well guys I bought a sealed copy of the Simonson Thor variant omnibus. Hopefully it comes in perfect condition. I've wanted this for a really long time and now I'm finally content with my collection.

[TomSlick]

Superior spidey omni will be the three OHCs taped together (and the two later issues if they aren't in OHC3) Team up will be lost in time. foes will hopefully get an OHC.

Exactly!!!

[Magnum Valentino]

Saw a first-print Daredevil Omnibus (#181 yellow cover) in a second-hand book shop in Manchester the other day for the astounding price of £49. Crazy to think how sought-after that book was and for how long, and at how I was able to not give it a second thought thanks to the recent reprint. Same shop had a copy of the issue in which "Elecktra" first appears. No idea what it's worth but it piqued by interest anyway.

[krisis]

My newest batch of Marvel Now reading was decidedly average. It's depressing to think about how spectacular EVERYTHING was two years ago when Now debuted when now most of the books have faded to a beige-toned middle ground.

Avengers World, Vol. 2: 3/5. This book is suffering from middle-chapter syndrome, as it presents one more step in the adventures of each of the three split-up squads from book one. Honestly, each vignette is aces in my book, but it felt like a TPB with snippets of three other TPBs. On the whole I'm sure this parallel action will pay off, but in the middle it's a bit disorienting. Super-gorgeous, though. And, the Hyperion one-shot by Spencer is less dull than it could have been, which is high praise for anything focusing on Hyperion.

Daredevil, Vol. 1: 2/5. It's hard to tell who is on auto-pilot here - Daredevil the character or Waid the author. Seemingly every twist in this story is either Daredevil realizing something too late or realizing he has made an early oversight. Despite some good beats with Shroud and a sad Adaptoid and Samnee on art, this feels nothing like the giddy early issues of the last volume. It was a bit of a slog.

Deadpool vs. X-Force: 3/5. Sometimes you just want to see super-heroes beat each other up and look pretty swell while doing it and maybe wince as they fundamentally alter American history in the process. This book ticks all of those boxes. It's not memorable and it doesn't matter, but it's a fun read. Between all of Deadpool's fourth-wall breaking Duane Swierczynski actually captures the feeling of a just-assembled X-Force team as it stood prior to X-Force #1. No regrets in reading this one, even if it wasn't amazing.

Inhumans, Vol. 1: 3.5/5. Charles Soule is a magician or some storytelling demon who sells portions of his soul for every new title he takes on. This book has no right to be interesting - not a one. Yet... not only is the plot interesting, but so are these new characters made up out whole cloth and a Medusa who is as bad-ass as Black Bolt has ever been. Both Joe Mad and Ryan Stegman have their moments of anatomy bent to incredulity, but a bold and consistent color palette does a lot to ground their less-than-realistic figures.

Iron Fist, Vol. 1: 1.5/5. I understand that there are some people who love this, who love Kaare Andrews, and who ate it up eagerly. I am not one of those people. I find Andrews' art gimmicks charming (crumpled and frayed pages, old-school tricks to infer gradients in solid blocks of color),but his actually panel work occasionally unintelligible. Aside from a perfect capsule of a first issue, the writing was overbearing, grasping for the magic of Fraction and Brubaker - yet, the reverence stopped there, as it disassembles their landmark work on the character and his world in a matter of five issues. I can't say there is no merit in this book, but it was extremely disappointing to me.

Iron Patriot: 3/5. I believe in Ales Kot. The political revenge plot he sketches across this Iron Patriot story is flimsy, the art is rough-hewn, and the book is a quick read. Yet, for me personally, this was a perfect comic. It wasn't afraid to dig into the personal life of a hero and intertwine it from themes borrowed from the real world. It made me care about James Rhodes and his ideals in a way not many comics have previously. I can objectively see this isn't a five-star book so I'm not going to rate it that highly even though I loved it, but suffice to say I would have merrily kept on buying this series if it made it past being a limited.

Winter Soldier: The Bitter March. 3.5/5. This is the Rick Remender I (and maybe all of us?) was hoping to read on Captain America. Here he is in James Bond form, writing a 60s yarn of Cold War espionage with a charming hero who's being hampered and then helped by the mysterious Winter Soldier. Honestly, Bucky could go suck an egg as far as I'm concerned, I was so darn invested in Ran Shen, a peer of Nick Fury's. That Remember cleverly continues his present-day story in the fourth volume of Captain America just proves how compelling his fractured time narratives can be when he's on his a game.

Krisis: Reading Marvel Now so you don't have to (unless you really feel like it). Next up? New Warriors, Deadly Hands, Deadpool v. Carnage, Wolverine & The X-Men, X-Iron Nova specials, the much-maligned Infinity Revelation, Thanos, Thor, Guardians, a dying Wolverine, and a ton of Original Sin!

[DarkBeast]

As predicted by most, there has been no real fire sale on omnibus this year.

J.D

Yep, I humbly acknowledge that this is holding true so far.

Still wouldn't be shocked to see some eBay stores suddenly put out a slew of $20-$35 Omnibuses, but I'm not holding my breath.

P.S. Actually, the $3.99 Marvel Now! Omnibuses, and the $15 AvXs, AvX Companions, and AoU OHCs have to count for something.

[DarkBeast]

Daredevil, Vol. 1: 2/5. It's hard to tell who is on auto-pilot here - Daredevil the character or Waid the author. Seemingly every twist in this story is either Daredevil realizing something too late or realizing he has made an early oversight. Despite some good beats with Shroud and a sad Adaptoid and Samnee on art, this feels nothing like the giddy early issues of the last volume. It was a bit of a slog.

...

Inhumans, Vol. 1: 3.5/5. Charles Soule is a magician or some storytelling demon who sells portions of his soul for every new title he takes on. This book has no right to be interesting - not a one. Yet... not only is the plot interesting, but so are these new characters made up out whole cloth and a Medusa who is as bad-ass as Black Bolt has ever been. Both Joe Mad and Ryan Stegman have their moments of anatomy bent to incredulity, but a bold and consistent color palette does a lot to ground their less-than-realistic figures.

I pretty much agree with your ratings (for the books I've read, at least), but these two stood out.

Yeah Waid's DD is just mediocre and has been for a few years now. Comparing the early issues of this volume with the early issues of the previous volume shows a ridiculous disparity. Waid is just on cruise control or something. The early issues of DD vol. 3 were so damn creative, with inventive uses of Matt's powers in every issue. Now it just seems like Waid is trading on good faith or something, like readers are going to be overly impressed with every little thing he does just because "He's Mark Waid. It's Mark Waid's DD. This is known as a great run." Well, it hasn't been great in years, imo. It still isn't bad. But it's a far cry from what it used to be. And as good as Samnee is, what he does just adds to the samey-same quality of the book. The art isn't terribly exciting. I much preferred the days when Marcos Martin and Paolo Rivera were trading off.

And Inhumans: Yeah, Soule has no business making me care about these characters or this title, but he's doing it. It's not as good as his Swamp Thing, but here again he just seems to have this knack for effortlessly creating fully formed personalities. NEW CHARACTERS -- like, a whole cast of them -- and they actually seem psychologically realized or something. This started out as such an editorially mandated book or whatever. It started out as such a '90s/retro/mandate/movie-tie-in misfire. But it's actually quite solid and has taken on an aura of a real epic work with a huge cast that's all balanced well.

[krisis]

I pretty much agree with your ratings (for the books I've read, at least), but these two stood out.

Yeah Waid's DD is just mediocre and has been for a few years now. Comparing the early issues of this volume with the early issues of the previous volume shows a ridiculous disparity. Waid is just on cruise control or something. {cut}

And Inhumans: Yeah, Soule has no business making me care about these characters or this title, but he's doing it. {cut}

For me, Daredevil was pretty consistently excellent through the end of DD's time in Latveria and also his arc appearing in Indestructible Hulk. From that point forward it felt to me like Waid had burned through his original intent of what he was sure he would be able to accomplish and was making up less essential stories. On the Hulk crossover side, that also relates to him writing increasingly intricate stories/characters on Hulk - which were then weirdly wiped out with the switchover to the new Hulk series.

It could just be my imagination, but I feel like the quality of Waid's efforts really shifted at that point. Who knows if that's accurate or what else could have contributed to it - he's an exceedingly intelligent, incredibly busy man. He's about to launch SHIELD for Marvel, which could very well be a co-flagship with Avengers, plus reboot Archie from scratch.

Soule... I don't even know what to say. Inhumans was hyped to be this "Game of Throne style epic" even when Fraction was plotting it, but I had no concept that I would actually care about such a thing. I can never listen to Soule's band, because if he's also amazing at that I'm going to have to quit life.

[DarkBeast]

^Yeah the Waid DD issues with Doom were still good... but even then I don't think they compare well to the Moleman issues that happened just a few months before that. Personally I think when Rivera stopped providing interiors it was almost like Waid stopped striving so hard for flat-out brilliance. There were still some really good issues every now and then after that, but nothing really compares to those first eight or so issues.

[ChristmasFnatic]

http://www.amazon.com/Avengers-Mille...9308118&sr=1-1

Avengers Millenium
by Michael Coasta (Author), Carmine Di Giandomenico (Illustrator)

Any idea what this is about?

[krisis]

http://www.amazon.com/Avengers-Mille...9308118&sr=1-1

Avengers Millenium
by Michael Coasta (Author), Carmine Di Giandomenico (Illustrator)

Any idea what this is about?

Giandomenico has only penciled a single issue of Avengers to date (an Initiative annual), so this is either a wide-ranging collection or something unannounced.

[Legion564]

For Waid's hulk and DD if I get the hardcovers that are out so far should I skip any? I've heard the 4th hulk isn't as good as the first 3.

[Mad Hatter]

Have you guys seen this?

http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Firsts-.../dp/0785198164