Marvel Collected Editions

[Eamo71]

Don't judge too hard on Cornell's Wolverine run - it is, by far, the worst run on the character I have ever read. I usually dig Cornell, but I have never seen anyone get Wolverine so broadly and laughably wrong in his 40 years of publishing history.

Given the theme of how they are rendering Wolverine "killable" it's regrettable they couldn't leverage the concept of the superior and superiorly-weird Max series "The Best There Is" from a few years back.

yeah I actually agree. There's a few Wolvie stories I do like - The Millar stuff is great - Enemy Of The State etc.... I loved Cornell's run on Capt Britain and MI6 etc... but the Wolverine stuff is not so good - even the dialogue is poor. Glad it's not just me who's thinking along those lines. I read the original MCP stuff back in the day in the floppies - can't remember if I liked it all that much.

I’m glad I cancelled my Uncanny X-Men Vol. 2 Omnibus from amazon.com at the last minute in April. At $66.74 + $5.98 shipping, they were pushing it a little bit. I decided to wait it out and see if I could pick it up for cheaper later on. It sold extremely well last month, and I started to get a little worried that the prices would remain pretty high as places like speedyhen.co.uk were out of stock. Fortunately, this morning, books_any on the amazon.co.uk markeptlace dropped the price and I pulled the trigger at £36.44 (excl. shipping). I reckon UXM Omni Vol.2 will be one of those that will go OOP pretty quickly. So, if you’re in Europe, this may be the time to pick it up as later on you’ll be fuming for not being more decisive earlier on.

Btw, books_any have dropped the prices of AoA Companion and Infinity Companion to £33.55 and £34.74, respectively. I also picked up the JLA Vol. 1 Omnibus from them for £33.58.

Pulled the trigger myself on that price (Uncanny X-Men) when I saw the listing this morning. Glad I didn't jump earlier too. Going to get Iron Man War Games too as it's gone down to a good price on Amazon market. Waiting for DD fall from Grace to go lower before I get it.

[victorxd1999]

Cable&Deadpool omnibus is great news. I got to buy that one. Also Thor god of thunder OHC, also a must buy

[grahamgg]

Also, with Deadpool Classic, Vol. 10 that line is completed! I can't think of any other classic line which actually collected the entirety of the potential run of classic issues it could cover. Can anyone think of another?

Didn't What If Classic reprint the entire 1st volume of the 70s-80s series?

Is Cable & Deadpool Marvel's largest omnibus? I feel like only DC has gone over 50 issues.

By page count Stern Spidey is still the largest at 1296 pgs. The Deadpool & Cable Omnis is 1272 pgs according to Hachette, which is just ahead of Byrne FFv2 (1224 pgs), Simonson Thor (1192 pgs) and SWII (1184 pgs).

yeah I actually agree. There's a few Wolvie stories I do like - The Millar stuff is great - Enemy Of The State etc.... I loved Cornell's run on Capt Britain and MI6 etc... but the Wolverine stuff is not so good - even the dialogue is poor. Glad it's not just me who's thinking along those lines. I read the original MCP stuff back in the day in the floppies - can't remember if I liked it all that much.

The MCP issues and the first 10 issues of Wolvy's solo title from 1988 are pretty good. As I recall they were published roughly simultaneously and complemented each other. They've got a real noirish street level vibe to them with Logan hunting down some pirates that killed one of his friends, then hooking up with some old acquaintances in Madripoor. They're not the best, but they're not bad either. Definitely not a super-hero slugfest type of story if that's what you're expecting.

Now, the later MCP Wolverine stories are ... let's be nice and just say "not the best". His solo book floundered in the post-Claremont/pre-Hama era. There were arcs by Peter David & Byrne, but it just seemed .... off somehow.

From Tom Brevoort's Tumblr:

Q: What's up with the pricing of Hickman's second FF omnibus? Compared to vol. 1, a price increase of $25 for 32 pages? Surely you understand how this could LOOK like Marvel is capriciously taking advantage of those who have already purchased vol. 1.

A: Our pricing is hardly capricious. The costs of publishing, of printing and binding and shipping are going up all the time, especially as print as a medium recedes in favor of digital across all strata of the world, and especially on monstrous books like the Omnibuses.

So it’s the difference between whenever we put out the first volume and now. It is also likely the difference between a Volume 1 and a Volume 2, which is simply not going to perform as well. If you want the material in this format, then this is the price that it all works out to that allows us to publish it that way. If not, then there are other ways to get it—hardcovers and softcovers and digital.

Interesting... but how can this begin to address the inconsistency of books being published the same year, with equal or more pages, at the $99 price?

The pricing is getting crazy across the board. See my earlier post about the Marvel Firsts 1980s v3 TPB for a whopping $70 bucks!

[alb2009]

I think marvel are making up for mistakenly pricing Hickman FF vol. 1 $75. Who knows, they might decide "publishing, binding etc. costs are higher" during time of release and bump it another $25 or so. I actually was under the foolish impression it would have a cheaper price tag than the first thinking it had less issues. I'm torn on whether to get it because while I clearly don't want to support Marvel's despicable tactics, I did snag the first volume for $30.

Getting ANXM, Thor and Deadpool/Cable for sure, but not on release. Has remender's UXF omni actually gone OOP this fast or has it just only run out of stock at IST (and while they're ordering more, its creating an unnecessary panic)?

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

Pulled the trigger myself on that price (Uncanny X-Men) when I saw the listing this morning. Glad I didn't jump earlier too. Going to get Iron Man War Games too as it's gone down to a good price on Amazon market. Waiting for DD fall from Grace to go lower before I get it.

Yeah, I've been monitoring the DD Fall from Grace Epic. It's just over £16 at the moment and I've been hesitant as to whether to pull the trigger. I'll probably do likewise and wait a bit longer. I'm in no rush as I have all the floppies and it's in stock everywhere.

[JohnHorus]

I don't see how this justifies a 25% price increase for only 32 extra pages? Seems to me like the complete lack of any price between 2.99 and 3.99 on a floppy, they charge it because they can.

Plus, I understand the argument of more people buying a volume one than a volume two, but how many people will JUST buy the volume one, and not get the second?! It's hardly an impulse buy item?!

I'm just glad I never bought volume one now, I was feeling a bit FF-ed out after SA vol 1 and 2 and Byrne vol 1 and 2.

I totally agree with you! They charge it because they can. After all, if printing, binding and shipping were the main reasons, then The Trial of Captain America, which has more pages and is also comprised of very recent material, wouldn't be cheaper than the FF by Hickman 2.

[CrazyOldHermit]

If you want the material in this format, then this is the price that it all works out to that allows us to publish it that way. If not, then there are other ways to get it—hardcovers and softcovers and digital.

This says it all. If it want it this way then you pay the price. If not settle for lesser formats.

[invisiblegardener]

I'm willing to believe that "the numbers" suggest $125 as a healthy, profitable price for Hickman FF 2, however, it seems Marvel has failed to consider the consumer psychology here when the second of two equally-sized volumes is unexpectedly jacked up in price. To any objective person that clearly looks like taking advantage of your customers. If their numbers give them any wiggle room, surely it is preferable to keep vol. 2 at the same price and hope to sell almost as many copies as vol. 1. A reasonable expectation, given the seamless nature of Hickman's run. Who would want vol. 1 and not 2? But at $125, we all know some people will wait for vol. 2 to hit clear-out, which is where I suspect it is heading. Maybe that is a lesson Marvel needs to learn.

[victorxd1999]

Any of the new books showed up to pre-order yet? Primarily Thor OHC and Cable & Deadpool Omnibus, can't wait for those!

[Balakin]

Maybe I'm naive or missing something, because I'm not a business person, but if they jack up the price of the 2nd FF omni, only those will buy it who already bought vol 1 (and not even all of them). New readers won't buy even vol 1 after this, because they know they will have to buy an expensive second volume too.
I think if they kept the prices of the 2 books on the same level that would be more profitable for them in the end.

[Andru]

Where on earth is superior Spidey Vol 3 OHC. Damn. I hope marvel does not just decide to release an omnibus now and not finish up the series as OHC.

Does this happen often? I just bought both Vol 1 & 2 in OHC. I wont be too pleased if they don't finish the series in this format.

[Rimmer]

Does this happen often? I just bought both Vol 1 & 2 in OHC. I wont be too pleased if they don't finish the series in this format.

There's many examples in the past where they've collected certain volumes in OHC and then stopped (Incredible Herc, Nova, Iron Man (Fraction)) to name a few.

In Superior Spidey's case, with the end in sight/here, and a decent size of the total run to fit in an omnibus, the high level thinking is it will be omnibused at some point (one consistent author, almost same creative team, big storyline in character, all contained in 1 volume - it hits all the right points). That doesn't mean we won't get a OHC vol. 3 before the omnibus is released, it just means we won't see it before 1/1/2015.

The final TPB of the series comes out in JULY; there were ~7 months between vol 1 & 2, if it held that same timframe, vol. 3 would be released in NOV/DEC. Plenty of time for the TPB to be in market. But alas, no.

Does this mean we won't get an OHC vol. 3? No.
Does this mean we will be getting an omnibus of the material? No.

To paraphrase the words of Merrick, "Your guess is as good as ours."
Also, to bring back a quote from the old boards: "You da man, Charlie Brown!"

[Russ840]

There's many examples in the past where they've collected certain volumes in OHC and then stopped (Incredible Herc, Nova, Iron Man (Fraction)) to name a few.

In Superior Spidey's case, with the end in sight/here, and a decent size of the total run to fit in an omnibus, the high level thinking is it will be omnibused at some point (one consistent author, almost same creative team, big storyline in character, all contained in 1 volume - it hits all the right points). That doesn't mean we won't get a OHC vol. 3 before the omnibus is released, it just means we won't see it before 1/1/2015.

The final TPB of the series comes out in JULY; there were ~7 months between vol 1 & 2, if it held that same timframe, vol. 3 would be released in NOV/DEC. Plenty of time for the TPB to be in market. But alas, no.

Does this mean we won't get an OHC vol. 3? No.
Does this mean we will be getting an omnibus of the material? No.

To paraphrase the words of Merrick, "Your guess is as good as ours."
Also, to bring back a quote from the old boards: "You da man, Charlie Brown!"

Your right there. The inconsistency in the publishing habits of marvel make me consider not buying anything until the runs are finished being published in what ever format it is or wait for the omni's.

[Russ840]

Is really like marvel to publish masterworks of 'The Spectacular Spider-Man'

[DT Winslow]

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I hate the name change. Really bothered me.