X-MEN: THE TRIAL OF GAMBIT

Paperback, 2016. Collects 1997's UNCANNY X-MEN #341 - 350, UNCANNY X-MEN #-1, X-MEN #62 - 64, and X-MEN #-1.

Before we dive into our latest X-MEN collected edition (released just a scant few months ago, in fact), let's address the sizable elephant in the room: the ONSLAUGHT OMNIBUS ended on UNCANNY X-MEN #337 and X-MEN #57, while this book picks up with issues 341 and 62, respectively. So we're missing three issues of UNCANNY and four issues of X-MEN as of this writing. Personally, if you toss whatever annuals and X-MEN UNLIMITED issues came out around that time, I think those contents would make for a fine ONSLAUGHT AFTERMATH trade or something along similar lines, so I hope to see the errant issues collected soon.

As for THE TRIAL OF GAMBIT: the book opens with UNCANNY X-MEN #341 by Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira, an issue I seem to recall was heralded, at least by WIZARD magazine, as a modern-day classic in which Cannonball battles Gladiator of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. This leads directly into UNCANNY 342 through 345, in which Lobdell, aided by Madureira and guest artist Mel Rubi, sends the X-Men off into one of their classic tropes which he had, up to this point, not yet done during his run on the title -- a spacefaring saga in which the group battles the Phalanx for the fate of the Shi'ar.

Then we jump over to the sister title, X-MEN, for issues 62 through 64, plotted by Lobdell, scripted by late nineties X-office go-to guy Ben Raab, and drawn by the newly arrived Carlos Pacheco and Art Thibert. The story follows the remaining Earthbound X-Men on a trip to Hong Kong for team-up with Shang-Chi and a battle with Sebastian Shaw and the Kingpin of Crime.

AVENGERS BY KURT BUSIEK & GEORGE PÉREZ OMNIBUS VOLUME 1

Some months back, I railed against Marvel's decision to include the 12-issue AVENGERS FOREVER mini-series in their then upcoming AVENGERS BY KURT BUSIEK & GEORGE PÉREZ OMNIBUS, but I went ahead and pre-ordered it anyway, selling off my old AVENGERS ASSEMBLE hardcovers to subsidize the purchase. And, as it turns out, I'm quite happy I did.

This AVENGERS run, by writer Busiek and artist Pérez, was really my first time reading the series -- or at least the mainstream Marvel Universe version of it -- on a regular monthly basis. I knew of the Avengers; I'd seen them plenty of times in guest-spots in other series I read. I had even read a handful of issues from the period when Bob Harras was the series' regular writer. But it was actually Busiek's THUNDERBOLTS, which launched around the time the Avengers were rebooted via "Heroes Reborn", that got me to pick this series up. I loved that first year of THUNDERBOLTS, and when I learned that its writer would be handling AVENGERS and IRON MAN when they returned to the mainstream universe, I made plans to follow those titles as well.