THE UNBOXING - FEBRUARY 2020

Just one single, solitary book this month, if you can believe it -- and it's not even digital for a change! Hot on the heels of last month's X-MEN: SHATTERSHOT, it's another hardcover starring Marvel's mighty mutants, from much later in the 1990s: the X-MEN VS. APOCALYPSE: THE TWELVE OMNIBUS. This volume is basically a compilation of several paperbacks that were released nigh-on a decade or more ago: X-MEN: THE SHATTERING, X-MEN VS. APOCALYPSE vol. 1, X-MEN VS. APOCALYPSE vol. 2, and X-MEN: POWERLESS. I never picked those books up at the time, however (though I do own them in digital format), so rather than an upgrade, this one is a new purchase for me.

And what a purchase it is! Though I haven't had much cause to talk about it here, I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that this era was one of my favorites for the X-Men. This book covers the majority of the period when Alan Davis served as plotter on both X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN throughout 1999. It was a period which brought back several plot points from earlier in the nineties (and even tied some of them up), but also felt somehow like a bit of a throwback to an earlier era. 1999 was probably the closest the X-Men of the nineties ever got to feeling like the X-Men of the late seventies, which was a great thing in my opinion.

So this is one I'm pleased to have on my shelf. I can't wait to read it, when Gentlemen of Leisure's X-aminations series gets to this era in a few more years. (And I know I say this a lot with no results to show for it, but I really do want to get my photo-reviews of the X-Men collected editions going again. I have no idea when it'll be, but it's still something on my to-do list!)

THE UNBOXING - NOVEMBER 2019

If you'll indulge me a moment: back in 2016, when I reviewed the UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS vol. 3, I said:

"The first chunk of the "official" bonus material is possibly the coolest: 66 pages reprinting full profiles for every X-character seen in the original OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE. This is basically a mini-handbook all on its own, and the profile art, by the likes of Smith, Cockrum, Byrne, and more, looks beautiful in the reconstructed Omnibus format. I know it might not be to everyone's taste, but this stuff gets me thinking that I would love to see a full OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE OMNIBUS. Yes, the profiles would be thirty years out of date, but that series is as much a part of my childhood -- and the childhoods of an entire generation -- as are the actual comics from which they draw their inspiration."

Well, here we are three-and-a-half years later, and this month's Unboxing features the arrival of (drum roll) the OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE OMNIBUS!

Like I said above, the profiles are way out of date, but I don't really care. This book is a lot of fun to flip through, and it features a Marvel Universe which exists now only in memory, with nearly all the characters shown as they were, preserved in their most iconic costumes (which is a reason I've never warmed up to the later "Deluxe Edition" handbook, which features several characters in their then-current and less timeless looks). And even though the book reprints the issues in order (with the "dead and inactive" characters lumped together in the back), there's a spiffy table of contents up front in complete alphabetical order, making it simple to find any character you might be looking for.

That's it for November, folks. With Black Friday coming up in just one week, I anticipate grabbing some digital releases from Comixology/Amazon -- but since that's nearly the end of the month, if I do so, I'll just save them for December.

THE UNBOXING - APRIL 2019

What's this? The Unboxing on Friday?! It's true, and the reason why will be explained in this very space... next Friday! But for now, after skipping the past two months, The Unboxing returns at last with three offerings from Marvel, and I think the wait was worth it!

First we have two trade paperbacks, starting with CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION: THE SUPERIA STRATAGEM. Over the past few years, Marvel has been steadily plugging away at completing Mark Gruenwald's ten-year run on CAPTAIN AMERICA in a number of trade paperbacks. Currently, thanks to this new volume and the previously released Epic Collections SOCIETY OF SERPENTS, JUSTICE IS SERVED, THE BLOODSTONE HUNT, and STREETS OF POISON, plus the out-of-print Epic-in-all-but-name THE CAPTAIN, we've got issues 307 - 397 collected. That's ninety-one issues plus associated annuals and such, covering nearly the first seven years of Gruenwald's run. Gruenwald's final CAP issue was 443, so we've still got quite a ways to go, but at the very least it's safe to say that the "prime" material is pretty much all available at this point. (Though I love all of it and will happily snap up the rest of the run as it's released!)

Next is X-MEN: ONSLAUGHT AFTERMATH, and I cannot overstate how absolutely thrilled I am to own this book. Those who follow my X-Men Collected Editions chart know that this was the final piece needed to close the X-Men's 1990s gap. As of now, thanks to ONSLAUGHT AFTERMATH, EVERY. SINGLE. ISSUE. of UNCANNY X-MEN and X-MEN from the full decade of the nineties has been collected. I seriously want to do a little jig over this. It's been my goal for about the past five years to have that entire run of issues on my bookshelf, and now I can finally say that the mission is accomplished.

(Of course this isn't to say I won't re-buy some of this material as it finds its way into better collections -- upgrading from paperbacks to hardcovers, for example -- but the point is that for now, the goal is complete.)

And speaking of rebuying, our last book is one that I couldn't resist even though I've purchased all of it in various formats over the years -- comics when I was a teen, trade paperbacks and hardcovers as an adult... but now we have it here, all collected in one comprehensive and definitive oversized hardcover, just in time for a certain major motion picture it inspired: the THANOS WARS: INFINITY ORIGIN OMNIBUS. The name is an inelegant mouthful, but the contents are what's important here. This book collects all of Jim Starlin's early Thanos material, from his first appearance in IRON MAN #55, through his war against Captain Mar-Vell and the Avengers, and up to his dealings with Adam Warlock -- plus everything in between, whether Thanos-related or not. I've probably mentioned it here before, but for the record, Starlin's cosmic stuff at 1970s Marvel is among my all-time favorite comic book runs, and it's wonderful to see it get the high-end treatment it deserves at long last.

THE UNBOXING - OCTOBER 2018

I'm quite pleased with this month's sole physical book. It's something I passed on when it was first released years ago, and I've kicked myself a bit ever since. But Marvel has gone back to press just in time for Halloween, and I now own the TOMB OF DRACULA OMNIBUS vol. 1. Presumably the remaining two books in this series will return to print soon as well, and this time around I intend to pick them all up!

Meanwhile, the Digital Unboxing returns this month for a certain Amazon princess we've been looking at a lot recently. Thanks to a couple of recent Amazon/Comixology sales, I now own WONDER WOMAN BY GEORGE PEREZ vol. 3 and WONDER WOMAN BY JOHN BYRNE vol. 2 in digital format.

Also new to the digital collection via a recent Comixology coupon are some adventures of a character I'd never heard of, but who sounded pretty cool when I read about her. Thus modern-retro pulp heroine Athena Voltaire has arrived, in the ATHENA VOLTAIRE COMPENDIUM vol. 1, ATHENA VOLTAIRE AND THE SORCERER POPE, and ATHENA VOLTAIRE AND THE VOLCANO GODDESS. It looks like there might be some additional material starring this character out there, but I don't think it's available digitally. However I'm not sure how the COMPENDIUM volume relates to previously released stories, so I might be wrong. Unfortunately, best as I can tell, it's hard to find a definitive listing of all Athena's stories and how they've been reprinted. Still, if nothing else, this looks to be the majority of her adventures.

Last year we had no Unboxings in August, September, October, or November! This year we've had one every month to date, and I already know there'll be one next month, too. If we manage one in December as well, this will mark the first year since 2014 that I've done an Unboxing twelve times. Part of this is, of course, due to the fact that I've added "Digital Unboxings" and "Junior Unboxings" to the proceedings, because I'm still not getting as many physical volumes as I used to -- but regardless of the reason why, filling in every month for 2018 is (hopefully) going to be a nice feeling!

THE UNBOXING - DECEMBER 2017

What's this? After a four-month dry spell, a new Unboxing at last?! Believe it, True-- uh... Believers. Due to back orders and other issues out of my control, three Omnibuses and a trade paperback arrived this month, two books apiece from each of the Big Two. A couple of these actually should've shown up last month, but what're you gonna do?

DC comes at us first with the BATMAN AND ROBIN ADVENTURES volume 2 trade paperback, continuing their reprints of the classic BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES tie-in comics. One more book should wrap up this series, and then hopefully DC will continue full steam ahead into BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES, which was far and away the longest-running of all three ADVENTURES series.

Next up is the JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL OMNIBUS volume 1. I've read precious little of the famous Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire JLI, but it's a run I've known of peripherally since -- well, I guess since it was being published. I know I owned at least one issue, and I distinctly recall flipping through some issue or another featuring G'nort and Manga Khan at the local Safeway when I was a kid. At the time, nothing I saw of the series impressed me, but I suspect I'll find it more appealing as an adult. At least, I hope I will!

THE UNBOXING - JULY 2017

The Spider-Man party continues this month with AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EPIC COLLECTION: KRAVEN'S LAST HUNT from Marvel. This book includes a notable chunk of Spidey stuff from the eighties, from the unmasking of the Hobgoblin to the SPIDER-MAN VS. WOLVERINE one-shot to wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson to the eponymous storyline featuring Kraven the Hunter. I have mixed feelings about this era. Partly it's due to a lot of substandard artwork, but more than that, the stories often feel too dark for Spider-Man -- especially SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE and "Kraven's Last Hunt". But still, if I collect every installment of no other Epic Collection line, I will collect all of Spider-Man because -- it's Spider-Man!

In addition, this month Marvel also brings the DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU OMNIBUS volume 2, a black-and-white volume completing Marvel's collection of the magazine series that starred, among others, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, and the Sons of the Tiger. As I mentioned when volume 1 was released, I've had a weird love of the Sons for many years without having read any of their actual adventures, and I'm pleased to finally rectify that. (That is to say, I'm rectifying my not having read the issues, not my love of the characters! That will endure even if I don't enjoy the stories.)

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Amazon has a "ghost" listing up for the 2018 release of the MASTER OF KUNG FU EPIC COLLECTION volume 1. I had previously speculated, based on statements from Marvel collected edition editors, that the Omnibuses might be the only way to get this material. I'm glad to see that's not the case; in addition to the fancy hardcovers, MASTER OF KUNG FU will also be available in a nice paperback format as well.

THE UNBOXING - JUNE 2017

Two books, both from Marvel, and both starring Spider-Man, comprise this month's Unboxing. You'd think the guy has a movie coming out in a couple weeks or something!

First is a trade paperback collecting SPIDER-MAN BY TODD DEZAGO AND MIKE WIERINGO. Some sources have labeled this as "volume 1" while others have not. It collects SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #7 - 24, which is the bulk of the two creators' work on the web-slinger. A second installment would be very significantly shorter, as their run concluded with SENSANTIONAL #31. It'll be interesting to see how Marvel collects those remaining issues.

(Though it should be noted that SENSATIONAL #25 - 28 were collected in the SPIDER-MAN: SPIDER-HUNT and SPIDER-MAN: IDENTITY CRISIS trade paperbacks from a few years back, along with issues of the other ongoing Spider-titles of the time.)

(And it should be doubly noted that the Wieringo-free SENSATIONAL 32 and 33 can be found in the SPIDER-MAN: THE GATHERING OF FIVE trade, while the earlier Dan Jurgens-created SENSATIONAL #1 - 6 are avaialable in the various trades and Omnibuses containing the "Clone Saga" -- meaning that the SENSATIONAL entire series is currently collected aside from issues 29 - 31!)

THE UNBOXING - MARCH 2017

Just two books this month, one from each of the "Big Two", and both are nice hardcovers.

The first, from Marvel, is the MASTER OF KUNG FU OMNIBUS volume 3, continuing the cult classic run from the seventies and eighties. I'll remind readers that volume 1 and volume 2 are both still available, but that it really seems as if this is a limited reprint deal, so once these books are gone, it's probably not likely (but don't hold me to this; I'm only try to read between the lines) that this material will ever be collected again in any format. There will be a fourth and final volume to close out the series, but as of yet it hasn't been solicited.

And from DC, it's BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS volume 1. This series, by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo (later replaced by Alan Davis), is one I've had interest in for some time, but until now the only reprint available was a black-and-white SHOWCASE PRESENTS volume from a few years back. Now, however, it's arrived in full color and I look forward to finally reading it. Hopefully this initial volume sells well enough to warrant enough follow-ups to collect the full series (or at least the full run of issues featuring Batman as the team's mentor). At the moment there are no further installments solicited, so time will tell...!

THE UNBOXING - DECEMBER 2016

The final unboxing of the year is an all-Marvel extravaganza. First up is LUKE CAGE, IRON FIST, AND THE HEROES FOR HIRE volume 1. This mouthful of a title reprints the first half of the late nineties series that was originally called simply HEROES FOR HIRE. I seem to recall this series was advertised as being written by Roger Stern, but John Ostrander eventually stepped in instead and, with Pascual Ferry on art chores, provided a very fun, often funny eighteen-issue series spotlighting several of Marvel's B- and C-list stars. This was one of my favorite Marvel series as it was coming out and it's great to have it collected (in full as of next month, as the second volume was fast-tracked for release in January).

X-MEN: AGE OF APOCALYPSE OMNIBUS

Hardcover, 2012. Collects 1995-96's UNCANNY X-MEN #320 - 321, X-MEN #40 - 41, CABLE #20, X-MEN ALPHA, AMAZING X-MEN #1 - 4, ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 - 4, FACTOR X #1 - 4, GAMBIT & THE X-TERNALS #1 - 4, GENERATION NEXT #1 - 4, WEAPON X #1 - 4, X-CALIBRE #1 - 4, X-MAN #1 - 4, X-MEN OMEGA, AGE OF APOCALYPSE: THE CHOSEN and X-MEN ASHCAN #2.

"Age of Apocalypse" is probably the one X-crossover from the nineties which is held in some esteem by most all fans. It's a legitimately creative and well-coordinated enterprise which dares to ask the question, "What would the world look like if Professor X had been killed twenty years earlier by his time-traveling son?"

This is one of the few classic X-events collected as an Omnibus rather than a simple oversize hardcover. I'm not sure why Marvel bothers with one distinction over the other, but it seems worth noting. Other than the branding and trade dress, however, this volume is essentially done in the exact same style as any of the prior books I've covered here in recent months.

"But wait!" you say, your spider-sense tingling. "Didn't you skip the AGE OF APOCALYPSE PRELUDE trade paperback listed on your X-MEN COLLECTED EDITIONS page? The book that contains UNCANNY X-MEN 319 and X-MEN 38 and 39, bridging the gap between PHALANX COVENANT and this very Omnibus?" The answer is yes, I did. That book, which also includes X-FACTOR 108 and 109, UNCANNY 320 and 321, X-MEN 40 and 41, and CABLE 20, was released in 2011 but I've never bothered to pick it up for a couple reasons: One, some of the reprint contents are identical to this Omnibus, covering the "Legion Quest" crossover which kicks things off. But I've never been afraid of double-dipping -- within reason -- in the past, so the other reason is that the PRELUDE volume is notorious for having been printed on extremely cheap newsprint-style paper. So between those two issues, I just haven't been able to bring myself to purchase it without a really steep discount (like, say 75% off at minimum). Thus, for now, that small hole in my ongoing X-chronology remains regrettably unfilled.

Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, our Omnibus opens up with the afore-mentioned "Legion Quest" storyline, running through UNCANNY X-MEN 320, X-MEN 40, UNCANNY 321, X-MEN 41, and CABLE 20. In this short crossover, Storm, Psylocke, Iceman, and Bishop travel back in time in an attempt to stop Professor X's son, Legion, from killing Magneto. They succeed, but Legion accidentally slays his own father instead, altering the timeline in numerous ways.

MASTER OF KUNG FU OMNINBUS VOLUME 1

Hardcover, 2016. Collects 1973-76's SPECIAL MARVEL EDITION #15 & 16, MASTER OF KUNG FU #17 - 37, GIANT SIZE MASTER OF KUNG FU #1 - 4, GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN #2, and material from IRON MAN ANNUAL #4.

I've never read Marvel's MASTER OF KUNG FU, but I've heard very good things about it. And it's rare, though not unheard of, that I pick up a high-end collection for a series I've never so much as touched. To the best of my recollection, the only other times I've done so were with DC's NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS series and Marvel's STAR WARS: THE ORIGINAL MARVEL YEARS OMNIBUS series. Of those, the former was critically and commercially acclaimed, while the latter -- well, it's some of the earliest Expanded Universe STAR WARS and I'd wanted to read it for years.

MASTER OF KUNG FU definitely falls into the "critically acclaimed" category. In certain scholarly comic book circles, it's ranked up there with the best of Marvel's late seventies/early eighties output; regarded at least as highly as the Claremont/Byrne X-MEN, Miller DAREDEVIL, and Simonson THOR. Still, given my lack of familiarity with the material, I probably would've waited for the inevitable Epic Collection trade paperbacks instead, except -- according to collection editor Cory Sedlmeier, these books are "...a special opportunity you don't want to miss out on." Working on the well-known knowledge that Marvel lost the rights to Fu Manchu, a prominent character in the series, decades back, and using that info to read between the lines, one might infer that perhaps Marvel has acquired a limited one-time reprint license, and after these Omnibus volumes are published, they may go out of print forever.

So, working from that assumption and trusting the numerous voices which have declared this one of the greatest Marvel runs of all time, I've bought volume 1 sight unseen and pre-ordered volume 2 as well, with full intentions to go for volume 3 too, when it's solicited.

THE UNBOXING - JUNE 2016

Crazy how things work out sometimes. Last month I received nothing in the mail, hence no Unboxing for May. But this month, it's a wealth of new trade paperbacks and one long-awaited hardcover, as well!

We'll start with DC, since I have one single item from them this month: the LEGENDS 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION. LEGENDS is a story I've wanted to read for years. My knowledge of DC history is a little spotty, but I understand this to be the very first crossover in the post-CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS DC Universe, and the story by John Ostrander, Len Wein, and John Byrne pits DC's heroes against Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips. I think this will make a nice companion to my collection of Byrne's SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL trade paperbacks.

Now it's on to Marvel. First up is the AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION: UNDER SIEGE. I have an old printing of this storyline, but it only contains about half the issues presented in this volume (and it predates Marvel's standard restoration practices, so it's pretty ugly to boot). Unless I'm mistaken, thanks to this book I now own the entirety of Roger Stern's classic AVENGERS run. I look forward to reading the whole thing sometime soon.

X-MEN BY CHRIS CLAREMONT & JIM LEE OMNIBUS VOLUME 2

Hardcover, 2012. Collects UNCANNY X-MEN #273 - 280, X-FACTOR #63 - 70, X-MEN #1 - 11, and GHOST RIDER #26 & 27.

Following from the X-MEN BY CHRIS CLAREMONT & JIM LEE OMNIBUS volume 1 and the X-TINCTION AGENDA hardcover, both released in 2011, 2012 saw Marvel issue the second book in their Claremont/Lee duology. And where the first volume was extremely light on contributions from Lee, volume 2 more than makes up for it -- of the 27 issues collected herein, more than half are illustrated by Lee.

The book opens with a recap page stretching all the way back to the "All-New, All-Different" era, giving broad strokes of the entire Chris Claremont X-MEN canon -- appropriate, since this book collects the twilight of his long, long run. From there we head into X-FACTOR 63 and 64 by Louise Simonson and Whilce Portacio, pitting the original five X-Men against a group of cyber-ninjas for the life of Iceman's girlfriend. Honestly, I'm not sure exactly why these issues appear here, since they really serve no purpose in the volume's overall narrative; however the issues are notable for being long-time writer Simonson's final X-FACTOR story.

Next are UNCANNY X-MEN 273 through 277 by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, featuring the X-Men in space against the Shi'ar while Rogue, Magneto, and Nick Fury battle Zaladane in the Savage Land on Earth. After this epic comes the final saga of the original X-Factor in X-FACTOR 65 through 68 by Claremont and Portacio (the former presumably on board to better set up the X-books' impending linewide realignment while the latter turns in the near-final issues of his brief X-FACTOR run before assuming penciling duties on UNCANNY X-MEN).

UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS VOLUME 3

Hardcover, 2016. Collects 1982-84's UNCANNY X-MEN #154 - 175, X-MEN ANNUAL #6 & 7, SPECIAL EDITION X-MEN #1, MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #5, WOLVERINE #1 - 4, and MAGIK: STORM AND ILLYANA #1 - 4.

I like the X-Men, for the most part, throughout their entire history (at least up to around 2001 or so when I stopped following them regularly). But there are some eras I only tolerate, and others I consider definitive. For me, the most definitive period in X-Men lore is UNCANNY X-MEN issues 94 - 175 (technically I prefer to include 176 as well, but I won't quibble if a collection spanning that stretch omits it). This volume completes that run for me, and if Marvel never produces another UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS, I'll be content.

While it's the Chris Claremont/John Byrne material which is the heart of those eighty or so issues, there's plenty to enjoy beyond Byrne's departure. Dave Cockrum, who shepherded in the era of the "new" X-Men with Len Wein and then Claremont on writing chores, returned as series penciler with issue 145, and the first chunk of his second run was included in the second UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS. As I discussed when I covered that book a couple years ago, once upon a time Marvel's Omnibuses followed a pretty strict routine of cramming a few previously published Marvel Masterworks volumes into one book and sending it off to the printers, with no regard to story flow. This resulted in UNCANNY OMNIBUS volume 1 ending in the middle of the "Dark Phoenix Saga".

Not so anymore! UNCANNY OMNIBUS 2 broke the trend and reprinted only a portion of the seventh UNCANNY X-MEN MASTERWORKS, stopping after issue 153. The reason, as we see here, was to avoid separating the long "Brood saga" into two books. With some interludes for other adventures, the Brood storyline runs all the way from UNCANNY 154 through 167! And, thanks to modern Marvel's more enlightened decision-makers, the entire epic is reprinted here.

THE UNBOXING - MARCH 2016

Three Marvels and a DC arrived this month, with one Marvel delayed until April for unknown reasons.

We'll get DC's offering out of the way first: the BATMAN: HARLEY & IVY Deluxe Edition hardcover collection, reprinting the limited series by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, as well as a number of other comic book team-ups from the BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES universe starring this duo and written by Dini. I've read every iteration of THE BATMAN ADVENTURES and its specials and annuals, but somehow I never got my hands on HARLEY & IVY when it was first published. I can't express how excited I am to read what is, to me, a "lost" Dini/Timm Batman production.

From Marvel, I've got an Avenger and two X-Men collections to look at -- first, CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE, the long-delayed fourth installment in the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale "color" series. Readers will recall that early last year I looked at the original "colors", DAREDEVIL: YELLOW, SPIDER-MAN: BLUE, and HULK: GRAY, which were published between 2001 and 2004. Now, at last, Loeb and Sale have created the long-ago teased WHITE as a companion to those series. I intend to read this one pretty soon and post my thoughts on it to go with the previous colors in short order.

X-MEN BY CHRIS CLAREMONT & JIM LEE OMNIBUS VOLUME 1

Hardcover, 2011. Collects 1989-90's UNCANNY X-MEN #244 - 269, X-MEN ANNUAL #13, and material from CLASSIC X-MEN #39.

As I understand it from a handful of "insider" posts at the Marvel Masterworks Message Board a few years back, Marvel brass originally wanted to publish a simple X-MEN BY JIM LEE OMNIBUS, collecting only Lee's work on the merry mutants. Fortunately, cooler heads in the collected editions department got wind of this and realized that, since Lee started out as a fill-in artist and worked in tandem with other pencilers even after he became the series' regular artist, such a collection would be an incredibly disjointed reading experience -- basically nothing more than a glorified art book.

It was proposed instead that all Lee's issues be released in sequential order with non-Lee issues, under the banner of X-MEN BY CHRIS CLAREMONT & JIM LEE. This would result in a comprehensive two-book collection of Claremont's final couple years on the X-Men, and would make these volumes a direct continuation of the X-MEN: INFERNO hardcover which had been released a few years earlier.

So this book is officially called X-MEN BY CHRIS CLAREMONT & JIM LEE. That's what it says in the indicia, at least. But the cover and spine simply call it X-MEN and list the primary authors as Claremont, Lee, and Marc Silvestri, as the latter was the series' regular penciler when Lee began doing fill-ins.

AVENGERS BY KURT BUSIEK & GEORGE PÉREZ OMNIBUS VOLUME 2

Collects AVENGERS #24 - 56, AVENGERS ANNUAL 2000 & 2001, THUNDERBOLTS #42 - 44; MAXIMUM SECURITY: DANGEROUS PLANET, MAXIMUM SECURITY #1 - 3, AVENGERS: THE ULTRON IMPERATIVE, and AVENGERS #1½.

Read about Volume 1 here.

It's called the AVENGERS BY KURT BUSIEK & GEORGE PÉREZ OMNIBUS VOLUME 2, but it's really an AVENGERS BY KURT BUSIEK & FRIENDS OMNIBUS. Of the forty-four issues contained herein, Pérez illustrates a whopping eleven. I wouldn't exactly call it false advertising, since the Omnibus does carry on from the Pérez section of the run and wrap up some loose ends established during his time on the series, but splashing his artwork all over the covers and including only his and Busiek's names on the cover and spine seems a bit misleading.

That said, there's some good stuff in here. The Omnibus leads off with AVENGERS issues 24 and 25, pitting the team against the Juggernaut and concluding a storyline called "The Eighth Day". This was an unusual crossover in that it had its setup in issues of IRON MAN, THOR, and SPIDER-MAN, as well as a JUGGERNAUT one-shot, then AVENGERS followed that story up with a sort of sequel/epilogue -- but both segments also worked as their own story with a beginning and end. Weirdly, I don't think the whole "Eighth Day" has ever been collected anywhere. The IRON MAN BY KURT BUSIEK & SEAN CHEN OMNIBUS and the THOR BY DAN JURGENS & JOHN ROMITA JR. vol. 3 trade paperback both collect the set-up, and this Omnibus collects the sequel -- but for the full experience, you'd need two books.

THE EVOLUTIONARY WAR

In 1988, Marvel did its first summer "Annual Event", "The Evolutionary War". As a kid, I picked up the Spider-Man installments, but no others.

In 2011, Marvel published an EVOLUTIONARY WAR OMNIBUS. As an adult, I was gripped by momentary madness and purchased it to finally read the entire thing.

Now the time has come to do just that.

I'm not sure what this crossover's reputation is these days, but I like it in theory. It's told exclusively in annuals, meaning that unlike something like SECRET WARS II or "Inferno" or "Acts of Vengeance" or the vast majority of Marvel's modern day events, it doesn't interrupt the flow of the ongoing monthly series. And, surprisingly, nearly every chapter in this book is written by those series' regular writers, so the characters and continuity should be in line with what you would've seen in a typical Marvel book at the time.

But on the other hand, when I was younger I tended to associate Marvel's annuals with guest writers, sub-par artwork, and inconsequential filler stories. The first of those, I just addressed above. The third is what we're going to spend the next few weeks determining. And as far as the art -- looking at this book's credits, I see several artists I enjoy listed, including Mark Texeira, Kieron Dwyer, Mark Bagley, and M.D. Bright (a third Mark, for those keeping count). Maybe the artistic drop-off in annual quality came a year or so after "Evolutionary War"? (I do distinctly remember thinking the following year's event, "Atlantis Attacks", was mostly pretty ugly.)

THE UNBOXING - OCTOBER 2015

It's another Marvelous month hereabouts, with two books from the House of Ideas joining my collection. Leading off is Marvel's first entry into their Epic Collection line for the Hulk, INCREDIBLE HULK EPIC COLLECTION: GHOST OF THE PAST. This book collects HULK issues 397 - 406 plus associated annuals and other materials. Not coincidentally, and in a nice touch from Marvel's collected editions folks, this book picks up exactly where the abandoned HULK VISIONARIES: PETER DAVID line left off more than four years ago.

The other item this month is the STAR WARS: THE ORIGINAL MARVEL YEARS OMNIBUS Volume 3, which concludes Marvel's effort to reprint their original STAR WARS comic book series in a trio of big hardcovers. But besides the remaining issues of the ongoing series, mostly by Mary Jo Duffy and Cynthia Martin, the real draw for me here is additional material from Marvel U.K. and a few other sources, produced around the same time as the earlier issues of the ongoing, and written by Archie Goodwin.

Marvel really fast-tracked this STAR WARS series, releasing all three volumes in one year, just in time for the upcoming THE FORCE AWAKENS motion picture. The funny thing is, normally I'm all in favor of quick releases like this, but I think I could've easily waited longer between STAR WARS volumes because I'm reading the series one issue a week to keep up with Teebore's review series at Gentlemen of Leisure (though at the moment I'm a couple weeks behind). But I will never actually complain about a fast-track pattern, since in general it's something I'd like to see more of from Marvel.

And that covers October!

UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS, VOLUME 1

Hardcover, 2006. Collects 1975-1980's GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1, UNCANNY X-MEN #94-131, and UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #3.

Well that's pretty straightforward, isn't it? Long before the X-Men became a bloated franchise with a dozen or more titles on sale each and every month, there was simply UNCANNY X-MEN. (Technically back then it was just called X-MEN, but I'll call it UNCANNY throughout all collected edition reviews to avoid confusion with 1991's sister title, X-MEN.)

This is the first printing of the first edition of the UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS. I believe the first edition had a second printing at some point, and there's a more recent second edition which has something like one extra model sheet in the back, but for our purposes I'm covering the original, released in 2006 when Marvel's Omnibus program was in its infancy. The physical descriptions at the end may not be of much help to anyone looking to pick up the current printing of this volume, but my coverage of the contents should be accurate to what you'd get if you went out and grabbed the second edition.

And what of the contents? Well, as I've said before, although the X-Men of the nineties are the X-Men I grew up with, and are technically "my" X-Men... the X-Men of the seventies through the early eighties are the X-Men, as far as I'm concerned -- and what we have here is a handsome collection of their earliest adventures.

Since there's only one series collected here, with one "giant size" issue and one annual, the contents are pretty straightforward: We begin with GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1, then proceed with UNCANNY X-MEN issues 94 - 124, ANNUAL #3, and finally issues 125 - 131.