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X-Factor by David & DeMatteis – The #37 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

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The X-Men and their various teams have gone through many reinventions in the decades since their birth, but I’d argue one of the most successful of them all was Peter A. David (PAD) writing X-Factor from 1991 to 1993.

This is an X-Men run that remains as delightful for entrenched fanatics as it is for brand new readers. Even if PAD was already cemented as a household name for comic fans thanks to his lengthy run on Incredible Hulk, he was the first author to ever focus on Polaris and he turned Multiple Man into such an enduring fan favorite that he spawned another 100+ issue run on X-Factor over a decade after this one ended!

X-Factor (1986) - #71X-Factor by David & DeMatteis is the #37 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot. Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes, and visit the Guide to X-Factor to learn how can you read it today.

Past Ranking: Up one spot from#38 in 2016.

Probable Contents: Collecting X-Factor #71-83, 87-105, & Annual 8-9 (and maybe #106 along with Excalibur (1988) #82, X-Force (1991) #38.

Yes, that pushes past the PAD material. I’ll explain more below.

See Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 2: 1991 to 2001) for a map of the remainder of the series.

Creators: Written by Peter A. David (#71-89, with Shana David & Skip Dietz), Scott Lobdell (#90-95 with Joe Quesada), J.M. DeMatteis (#92-105), & Todd Dezago (#103-106).

Line art by Larry Stroman (#71-81 with Tom Raney, Kevin J. West, Brandon Peterson, & James Bosch), Rurik Tyler, Marc Pacella, Jae Lee, Joe Quesada (#87-92 with Aldrin Aw & Jan Duursema), Terry Shoemaker, Paul Ryan, Greg S. Luzniak, Jan Duursema (#97-106 with Greg S. Luzniak, Bryan Hitch, & Roger Cruz), Chris Batista, & Mat Broome.

Inks by Al Milgrom with Clifford E. Van Meter, Andy Lanning, Jeff Albrecht, Mark McKenna, Terry Austin, & Steve Moncuse.

Colors by Glynis Oliver with Mike Thomas, Kevin Tinsley, Brad Vancata, Marie Javins, Ariane Lenshoek-Pinheiro, Tom Smith, Matt Webb, Carlos Lopez, and Joe Rosas.

Can you read it right now? Not entirely. You can get through #92 with current collections, but then there is a gap until #106. The same is true for Marvel Unlimited.

The Details:

Peter David wrote the perfect first issue with X-Factor #71.

I’ve read this run several times, and along with many voters on Tigereyes’ secret ballot I would say it’s amongst my favorites. Yet, at the time in 1991, the announcement of this cast and creative team supplanting the original five X-Men largely written by Louise Simonson in X-Factor drew a reaction more like “Uh, I guess it could work?” [Read more…] about X-Factor by David & DeMatteis – The #37 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017

Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 4: 2008 to 2015)

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This is the end, my friends! The last in a series of four posts covering how Marvel could cover every X-Men comic book in omnibus volumes.

This post covers every X-Men series from Messiah Complex to the end of Marvel Now in an effort to give you maximum ideas for the The Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, where you vote for the comic runs you’d most like to see in an oversized format. Monday I covered all of X-Men from 1963 to 1991, Tuesday I reviewed 1991 to 2001, and yesterday I broke down 2001 to 2008.

With 21 more omnibuses from Messiah Complex to AvX and another 10 from Marvel Now, this edition brings our grand total of potential X-Men volumes to 113 possible omnibuses – which begs the question: How many of these could we possibly see in our lifetimes before books become completely obsolete and comics are downloaded directly into our brains?

At Marvel’s current rate of only a handful of X-Men omnibuses a year, it’s never going to happen.

Yet, with most Marvel omnibuses selling between 1,000 and 2,500 units in their first week, it makes me wonder how many of these books we could see if Marvel abandoned the outdated Direct Market model for determining their pre-order volume and sell-through.

Picture this – in October 2017 Marvel partners with Kickstarter plus one of the big online comic book sellers as a distributor to introduce the new “X-Men Omnibus Club: Year 1.” [Read more…] about Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 4: 2008 to 2015)

Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 3: 2001 to 2008)

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I’m back with a third installment of the ultimate X-Men omnibus mapping, finding a way to squeeze just about every issue of X-titles into a cohesive bookshelf of handy omnibus volumes.

Okay, they’re not actually all that handy. Most of them could probably be wielded as a deadly weapon.

Today’s era begins with Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men starting on #114 in 2001 and ends with the final issue of Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, which is the last thing that happens to any X-Men prior to Messiah Complex. Of course, there are a lot of other series contained in that material – you’ll immediately note that neither of those historic runs address a single issue of Uncanny X-Men!

Every one of those issues is covered in this post. Why? To give you ideas for the The Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, where you vote for the comic runs you’d most like to see in an oversized format. Monday I covered all of X-Men from 1963 to 1991, and yesterday I covered 1991 to 2001.

There are 25 potential omnibus volumes in this material! Many of their contents are high debatable, but that’s part of the fun – collected edition mapping is a contentious pastime. Heck, I don’t even agree with how Marvel does things half of the time! If you have a correction or disagreement don’t hold back – sound off in the comments below.

Now, prepare to be fully educated in the seedy underbelly of this period of all-star X-Men writers, including some books I am sure you never knew existed unless you are a superfreak of a walking Encyclopedia-X like I am.

[Read more…] about Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 3: 2001 to 2008)

Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 2: 1991 to 2001)

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X-Men is one of the most popular comics franchises in history, and in the 90s it rode the crest of the speculator wave to over half a dozen ongoing series and at least twice that many crossover events.

However, when it comes to coverage in oversize editions, you’d think that those crossover events were all there was to X-Men in the 1990s. That’s not the case, and there are hundreds of issues outside of those events that haven’t seen oversize collection – including many that have never been reprinted.

Every one of those issues is covered in this post. Why? To give you ideas for the The Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot, where you vote for the comic runs you’d most like to see in an oversized format. Yesterday I covered all of X-Men from 1963 to 1991 and how it could be collected by omnibus volumes, and tomorrow I’ll be back to cover the Morrison and Whedon era of X-Men.

There are 28 potential omnibus volumes in this material! Collected Edition mapping is a trivial pursuit (in both senses of the phrase) that is up to a lot of personal interpretation, so if you have a correction or disagreement don’t hold back – sound off in the comments below!

I think of this era as everything from X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #281 in 1991 through the end of Onslaught and continuing to the beginning of Grant Morrison’s take on the X-Men in 2001. We’ve already got a number of omnibus-sized oversize hardcovers clustered at the beginning of this era, but after Age of Apocalypse things get spotty across all of the titles.

Are you ready? (I’m not sure that you could possibly be ready.)

[Read more…] about Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 2: 1991 to 2001)

Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 1: 1963 to 1991)

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The Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus Secret Ballot allows collected editions fans to play “Fantasy Collections Department” by picking the runs they’d most like to see in an oversized format.

Now that I’ve recapped the history of past years of the Ballot, we’re up to two weeks of the really fun stuff – thinking up dozens upon dozens of suggestions for Marvel omnibuses we’d love to see on our shelves!

I highlighted 50 runs that deserved an omnibus at the close of the survey last year, but this time I’m going to be a lot more comprehensive.

I’ll begin on my home turf: The X-Men. It’s how Crushing Comics guides began, and I own every issue of X-Men in either single issue or collected format, so I’m accutely aware of the gaps in oversized content.

Today I’ll cover both existing and potential Omnibuses for X-Men from their debut in 1963 through the launch of X-Men, Vol. 2 in 1991. Then, tomorrow we’ll look at the tumultuous and under-collected 90s, before finishing up on Wednesday with the pair of most recent X-Men eras – from Grant Morrison’s New X-Men in 2001 through present day.

After that, we’ll rinse and repeat this exercise in reverse for the entire Marvel Universe, working backwards from the current All-New All-Different Marvel to look at the top possible omnibuses across the entire line from every period until we’re back to the few books still left uncollected from the 1960s.

So, if you haven’t yet voted in the poll or just need a few more books to fill out your personal Top 20, get ready – the next two weeks of CK will have over 100 omnibus suggestions for you to choose from!

Now, let’s get to some X-Tensive X-Men omnibus mapping, staring with the Classic X-Men era from 1963-1974, before moving on to Chris Claremont’s tenure on X-Men from 1975-1991 (plus, all of the tie-in series from that era.

There are 19 potential omnibus volumes in this material! Collected Edition mapping can be exact and contentious work, so if you have a correction or disagreement don’t hold back – sound off in the comments below!

[Read more…] about Oversize X-Men: A map of every existing omnibus, plus what’s missing (Part 1: 1963 to 1991)

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #15, 14, and 13

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Omnibus on ShelfWelcome to week two of my journey through the Top 50 Most-Wanted Omnibuses from Marvel, per an annual secret ballot conducted by major fan TigerEyes. I covered #20-16 in the last installment.

The books ranked from 15 to 1 are some of the most-consistently demanded Marvel material, although two thirds of it is already readily available in color. Particularly, this group of books shows how important cinematic depictions of the Marvel Universe have become even to long-time fans – every book corresponds to a specific screen property.

If you have any extra intelligence to add about the probable runs or opinions about the comics therein, please leave a comment! Even when it comes to X-Men, I’m far from a prohibitive expert on these books. I’d love to hear your perspective.

Want to learn more about the Marvel Omnibus editions that already exist and the issues they cover? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for tracking Marvel’s hugest releases – it features every book, plus release dates, contents, and even breakdowns of $/page and what movies the books were released to support. [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #15, 14, and 13

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #20 to 16

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Omnibus on ShelfA week into this countdown and accompanying annotation and we’ve finally reached the Top 20 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibuses from the 2016 Secret Ballot by Tigereyes. I covered #25-21 in the last installment.

This installment includes two books of fan-favorite material, a long shot second volume to an orphaned first, the long-ignored origin of a hero who has two films to his name, and the highest-ranking vote from my own ballot! There’s a solid chance I would buy all five of these books.

If you have any extra information to add about the probable runs or opinions to share about the comics therein, please leave a comment! Even when it comes to X-Men, I don’t know (or remember!) everything about these books – and you might.

Do you own an oversized tome of your favorite character’s comic books? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for tracking Marvel’s hugest releases – it features details on every oversize book, including a rundown of contents and if the volume is still readily available for purchase. [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #20 to 16

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #30 to 26

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Omnibus on ShelfWe’ve reached the halfway point of the 2016 Secret Ballot for Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibus by Tigereyes. I covered #35-31 in the last installment.

Here’s your early warning: this batch of books includes not one but three X-Men titles, and boy do I have opinions about those! Also, all five of these books placed lower in previous years.

I’ve failed to say this previously, but if you have any extra intelligence to add about the probable runs or opinions about the comics therein, please leave a comment! Even when ti comes to X-Men, I don’t know (or remember!) everything about these books – and you might.

Want to learn more about the Marvel Omnibus editions that already exist and the issues they cover? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for tracking Marvel’s hugest releases – it features every book, plus release dates, contents, and even breakdowns of $/page and what movies the books were released to support.

Now that you’ve been adequately warned, let’s x-amine what I have to say about #30 through 26! [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #30 to 26