Avengers Omnibus Mapping for the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot

For the next two weeks, I’ll be loosely mapping missing and most-wanted Marvel omnibus volumes every day! Today I’ll be looking at all of the omnibuses that don’t yet exist for Avengers team books from 1963 to the present day.

This post explains titles and potential Avengers Omnibus Mapping for entries on the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot. You can vote right now (until 5 April 2024 @ midnight US ET) or watch our mega-length announcement stream reviewing every single voting option.

Marvel has always had a strong game when it comes to printing Avengers omnibuses, but a lot of that was linked to the MCU release schedule. In this vast gulf between Avengers films, what Avengers omnibuses do you want to see printed the most? And, what Avengers runs do you still need to dig into?

If you’re not sure of what to vote for, stick around for my explanations. Or, if you’ve already voted, learn why the team behind the poll decided on these books and titles – including some of my mistakes and regrets as one of the editors of the options on the final poll.

Or… just find some great comics to read!

Remember: These mappings are just my suggestion of how Marvel could assemble these books. They are meant to help you decide on your votes and build your personal reading list, but your vote on the poll is NOT an endorsement of my specific map. It’s a vote in favor of Marvel creating a book with that title or covering that period.

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Avengers Omnibus Mapping: Avengers (1963)

Avengers Omnibus Mapping for issues of Avengers (1963). See Guide to Avengers (1963 – 1996) for collections of this title, including existing omnibuses, plus Marvel Masterworks and Epic Collections including the material that would be collected in these books.

Avengers Vol. 6 (MMW 16-18)
This volume is the obvious next book in the classic Avengers omnibus series. Every book so far has included three Marvel Masterworks volumes of material, and there is no reason this should be an exception.

That means it would collect Avengers (1963) #150-188 & Annual 6-9, Marvel Two-in-One (1974) Annual 2, and material from Avengers: The Korvac Saga Trade Paperback (1991) and Marvel Tales (1966) #100. It could also add Super-Villain Team-up (1975) #9, which was included in the Epic line.

Avengers Vol. 7 (MMW 19-21)
It’s easy to predict the next Avengers classic omnibus for two reasons. First, it’s another three Marvel Masterworks! Second, this brings the line right up to the start of Roger Stern’s much-beloved Avengers, so it makes perfect sense to stop here.

This would collect Avengers (1963) #189-226 & Annual 10-11, Marvel Premiere (1972) #55, Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #1-4, and material from Tales To Astonish (1979) #1, Marvel Super Action (1977) #35-37, and Marvel Fanfare (1982) #3.

Avengers Vol. 8 AKA by Roger Stern, Vol. 1
Avengers Vol. 9 AKA by Roger Stern, Vol. 2
Roger Stern has one of the most-loved single-author runs on Avengers (1963), which runs from Avengers (1963) #227-287 & Annuals 12-16. Even though this extends farther than two volumes into the future of this omnibus line, these books have always garnered votes on the poll – we couldn’t possibly exclude them!

Marvel occasionally releases 60-issue volumes, but they’d never do that for a classic omnibus line. Plus, there’s more material to include in here! Even if the Masterworks don’t break perfectly at the midway point or end of this run, I suspect Marvel will make it work so that this pair of volumes are perfectly self-contained.

These would also include Amazing Spider-Man (1963) Annual 16, Doctor Strange (1974) #60, Fantastic Four (1961) #256 (& material from #257), Hawkeye (1983) #1-4, West Coast Avengers (1984) #1-4, and Iron Man (1968) Annual 7 – all of which are in the Masterworks line. It would also likely include Stern’s X-Men Vs. Avengers (1987) #1-4 and Alpha Flight (1983) #39, West Coast Avengers (1985) Annual 1, Marvel Graphic Novel (1982) #27: Emperor Doom, and West Coast Avengers (1985) Annual 2 – all of which are in the Epic line.

Fantastic Four by Walt Simonson (includes Avengers material)
One of our mantras for making our omnibus list is “this is a poll about books, not mapping.” That means sometimes these books titles are a stand-in for a hotly-contested mapping that could go multiple different ways. In this case, we decided it didn’t make sense to add Avengers Vol. 10 to the poll and we knew people would ask for Simonson’s Fantastic Four work to be included.

That means this could include Avengers (1963) #288-304 & Annual 17-18, which includes Simonson’s work on #291-299 and stops just prior to the existing Byrne omnibus. It would also include Fantastic Four (1961) #334-354.

Is this book a realistic pick? Should it really be different than voting for Avengers Vol. 10, which will be almost the same exact thing but with the Byrne issues included? That’s not for us to decide. If you want to see this material, vote for it!

Krisis Regrets: We should have included the years and issues ranges in this book title. I don’t think the average reader knows when Simonson wrote either of these books.

Avengers by Nicieza et al (1990 – 1992)
This book would begin with Fabian Nicieza’s run (#317-324), then continue to Mark Gruenwald (#325), & Larry Hama (#326-333), and the start of Bob Harras (#334-342) – plus Annuals 19-21 – to meet up with The Gathering omnibus on the other side.

Krisis Regrets: We goofed on this title! I tried to fix it during the live stream, but I didn’t do a good enough job. This should have been called either “The Gathering Prelude” or “Road to Galactic Storm.” More people would have known what it included if we called it that.

Avengers: Operation Galactic Storm
This occurs a few issues into “The Gathering Omnibus,” which simply skips it. It’s wild to me that Marvel didn’t release an omnibus of this material to tie into The Marvels, which was related to its content!

This would collect Avengers (1963) #345-347, Avengers West Coast (1989) #80-82, Quasar #32-36, Wonder Man (1991) #7-9, Iron Man (1968) #278-279, Thor (1966) #445-446, Captain America (1968) #401, and material from Captain America (1968) #398-400. That’s a relatively slim omnibus (it was just a single Epic Collection!, so I suspect it could also collect some other space stuff from this same period, or more issues of Quasar.

Avengers: The Gatherers Aftermath / The Crossing Prelude (1994 – 1995)
This one speaks for itself… kinda. It would obviously collect Avengers (1963) #376-389, which is the gap between omnibuses of The Gatherers and The Crossing. But… what else what it contain?

Per the Epic line, it would probably include Avengers Log (1994) #1, and the “Bloodties” crossover (X-Men (1991) #26; Avengers West Coast (1989) #101; Uncanny X-Men (1963) #307), Marvel Double Feature: Avengers/Giant-Man (1994) #379-382, Vision (1994) #1-4, and Captain America (1968) #440-441. Also, there was a six-issue series called “Avengers Unplugged” that could easily be collected here as well.

And, finally, The Crossing Omnibus abandons Avengers (1963) #396-400 and the First Sign crossover from Captain America (1968) #449, Thor (1966) #496, Iron Man (1968) #326, and Avengers (1963) #396.

Would this book have to include all of that material? No. But, giving it this title makes it obvious that this is “The Avengers Mid-90s Gap Omnibus” and you can project whatever you want onto it!

Avengers Omnibus Mapping: 80s and 90s Avengers Titles

Avengers Omnibus Mapping for other 80s and 90s Avengers titles.

Avengers: Avengers Solo & Avengers Spotlight
This 40-issue solo Avengers series has never been comprehensively collected, though some of it is included in the Hawkeye Epic Collection line. It runs for 4o issues across Solo Avengers (1987) #1-20 and Avengers Spotlight (1989) #21-40. It could also include some other random solo Avengers adventures from Marvel Comics Presents that would otherwise be abandoned, and even mini-series like Jack of Hearts (1984).

Krisis Regrets: I goofed and called this “Avengers Solo” instead of “Solo Avengers.”

Avengers: West Coast Avengers Vol. 3
See Guide to Avengers West Coast. This is an instance where we stayed deliberately quiet about what the book would contain. Would this double-dip the Avengers by Byrne omnibus to continue the West Coast line from issue #42 or start afterward with #63? How far could it push? What mini-series would it contain? How many additional volumes would it require?

I am here to answer none of those questions! This is a vote for more Avengers West Coast. Let’s leave it at that!

Avengers: Force Works
See Guide to Avengers West Coast. Same story here as Avengers West Coast. Would this collect just Force Works (1994) itself? The lead-up end-run of Avengers West Coast, including mini-series for several of its stars? Some or all of the accompanying War Machine series?

Shhhh… stop worrying about the full mapping. We can’t know the answer without successfully mapping all of the rest of the West Coast omnibus line.

At minimum, it would collect Force Works (1994) #1-22 & Ashcan Edition, Century: Distant Sons (1996) #1, material from Iron Man/Force Works Collectors’ Preview (1994), and the Hands of the Mandarine crossover issues (War Machine (1994) #8-10, Iron Man (1968) #310-312, and material from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #169-172).

We Missed It: Great Lakes Avengers
There’s apparently 30+ issue of Great Lakes Avengers material out there, so we could’ve included this one on the poll! There’s always next time.

Avengers Omnibus Mapping: 2000 – 2010 Avengers

Avengers Omnibus Mapping of Avengers titles from 2000 through the end of The Heroic Age in 2012.

Avengers by Johns & Austen (2002 – 2005)
See Guide to Avengers (1996 – 2005). This perfectly plugs the gap between the end of the Busiek & Perez period and the start of Bendis. With a fresh set of reprints of both of those books on the way, this is the perfect time for it!

This would collect Avengers (1998) #57-84 (AKA #472-499), Vision (2002) #1-4, Thor (1998) #58, Iron Man (1998) #64, & Avengers/Thunderbolts (2004) #1-6.

Avengers: Avengers Disassembled (includes solo tie-ins)
See Guide to Avengers (1996 – 2005). I think this book is dumb, but people have voted for it in the past. It’s basically the Bendis “Avengers Disassembled” arc, plus related arcs that finished off books of the Avengers trinity.

It would collect Avengers (1998) #500-503, 500 Director’s Cut, and Finale; Thor (1998) #80-85, Iron Man (1998) #84-89, Captain America (2002) #29-32., Captain America & The Falcon (2004) #5-7. You could even justify including Fantastic Four (1963) #514-519 and Spectacular Spider-Man (2003) #15-20, which also carried the “Disassembled” banner. Would it also include some other Disassembled-Era Avengers errata, like Secret Wars (2004)? I think that would be weird, since it would involve combing hotly-desired material alongside a lot of double-dipping.

Avengers: New Avengers by Brian Bendis Vol. 2
See Guide to New Avengers (2005 – 2010). This is an obvious and highly-demanded book!

It would collect Civil War: The Initiative, New Avengers (2004) #32-64, Annual 2-3, & Finale; and New Avengers: Illuminati (2007) #1-5, Secret Invasion: Dark Reign One-Shot, Free Comic Book Day 2009 (Avengers), Dark Reign: The List – Avengers One-Shot, New Avengers; and material from Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #601 and Breaking Into Comics The Marvel Way #1.

Avengers: Mighty Avengers by Bendis & Slott
See Guide to Mighty Avengers. Another obvious book that starts just after New Avengers by Brian Bendis Vol. 1.

This would collect Mighty Avengers (2007) #1-36 & Secret Invasion: Requiem, plus maybe also Avengers/Invaders (2008) #1-12.

Avengers: The Initiative
See Guide to Young Avengers. This would collect Avengers: The Initiative (2007) #1-35 & Annual 1.

Krisis Regrets: I should’ve included the years in this title as well as the authors! Not everyone knows what this book was, when it occurred, or that it was written entirely by Dan Slott & Christos Gage!

Avengers: Avengers Academy
See Guide to Young Avengers. This would be a perfect one-and-done volume. The trouble is that it has virtually no recognizable stars, save for Laura Kinney as X-23.

This would collect Avengers Academy (2010) #1-39, 14.1, Avengers Academy Giant-Size #1, Thunderbolts (1997) #147, and material from Enter The Heroic Age #1, Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #661-662, Fear Itself: The Home Front (2010) #1-7, and Avengers: Solo (2011) #1-5

Krisis Regrets: I should’ve included the years in this title. Not everyone knows what this book was or when it occurred.

Avengers: Dark Avengers Omnibus
See Guide to Thunderbolts & Dark Avengers. I’ll crib from the notes of YouTube commenter Cody Summers for this map, which could collect a lot more than just the twin OHCs of Dark Avengers and Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia:

Dark Avengers (2009) #1-16 & Annual 1; Dark Avengers: Ares #1-3; Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus, Utopia; Dark Reign: Hawkeye #1-5; Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #1-4; Dark Reign: The Cabal #1; Dark Reign: The Goblin Legacy #1; Dark X-Men #1-5; Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1-3; Dark X-Men: The Confession #1; Siege #1-4; Uncanny X-Men (1981) #513-514; X-Men Legacy #226-227.

Avengers: New Avengers (2010) by Brian Bendis
Avengers: Avengers (2010 – 2012) by Bendis
See Guide Avengers Flagships titles (2010 – Present). Each of these side-by-side titles ran for 34 issues, a “Point One” issue, and an annual – too much for just one book!

There’s also some other Bendis errata from this period they could pull in, including Avengers: Prime (2010) #1-5. And, for that matter it could also include Avengers Assemble (2010) #1-8, which is an epilogue to Bendis’s time on Avengers (even though it’s already in his Guardians of the Galaxy omnibus).

Krisis Regrets: I should have simply called this “Avengers: Heroic Age Avengers by Brian Bendis, Vol. 1. (2010 – 2012)” Splitting it between two books just confused voters, and a lot of people want to see it collected together.

Avengers: Secret Avengers (2010 – 2012)
See Guide to Secret Warriors & Secret Avengers. Some folks in the past have voted just for the Rick Remender portion of this volume, but this would make a perfect one-and-done book.

This would collect Secret Avengers (2010) #1-37, 12.1, & 21.1, Fear Itself: Black Widow, and maybe also Onslaught Unleashed (2011) #1-4. It could add Vengeance of the Moon Knight (2009) #10, which is a full-team appearance.

Avengers: Avengers Assemble (2010 – 2013) by Bendis & DeConnick
See Guide Avengers Flagships titles (2010 – Present). This is another obvious one-and-done book, collecting Avengers Assemble (2012) #1-25 & Annual 1 and crossover material from Avengers: The Enemy Within #1 and Captain Marvel #13-14 & 17.

I think you could also make the argument to throw Warren Ellis’s Avengers: Endless Wartime (2013) OGN in here to fill it out, since it’s contemporaneous to this period and this team.

But… what if this Bendis material was collected on its own? Does it make sense for this to double-dip? I think you could probably convert it to an “Avengers: Marvel Now” companion at that point, or even move the DeConnick material into the Avengers World book in the next section since it ran alongside (and somewhat interacted with) Hickman’s Avengers. But, people want to vote for this, so here it is!

Avengers Omnibus Mapping: 2012 to Present Avengers Titles

Avengers Omnibus Mapping for Avengers titles from 2012 to present.

Avengers: Avengers Arena & Avengers Undercover by Dennis Hopeless
See Guide to Young Avengers. A straight-forward collection of Avengers Arena (2013) #1-18 & Avengers Undercover (2014) #1-10. They go together perfectly and there’s nothing left to add!

Avengers: Secret Avengers by Spencer & Kot (2013 – 2015)
See Guide to Secret Warriors & Secret Avengers. Another obvious collection of Secret Avengers (2013) #1-16 and Secret Avengers (2014) #1-15, which were riotous fun! Remember when Nick Spencer was fun?! This would also collect a story from Marvel Now! Point One and Original Sin: Secret Avengers (Infinite Comic) (2014) #1-2.

Avengers World (2014 – 2015)
See Guide Avengers Flagships titles (2010 – Present). This would collect Collects Avengers World (2014) #1-21, Avengers (2012) #34.1-34.2, and material from All-New Marvel Now! Point One. Plus, I think it would make sense to include Uncanny Avengers (2012) Annual 1, New Avengers (2013) Annual 1, and Avengers (2012) Annual 1.

Krisis Regrets: We should have called this AKA Avengers by Hickman Companion, because then people would have easily understood what it represented. That would give it an excuse to include DeConnick’s issues from Avengers Assemble (2012) discussed above [22 issues]. It could also include A+X (2013) #1-18. Plus, it could collect other errata like Avengers: Endless Wartime (2013) OGN, Avengers A.I. (2013) #1-12, Avengers: Millennium (2015) #1-6, and three Avengers: Ultron Forever (2015) one-shots [another 24 issues of material].

So, uh… this could be two volumes worth of a companion totaling 91 issues! Or, a companion volume could be separate from this World book. Which is why we goofed by not just calling it a Hickman Companion.

Avengers: Mighty Avengers by Al Ewing
See Guide to Mighty Avengers. This would collect Mighty Avengers (2014) #1-15 and Captain America & The Mighty Avengers (2014) #1-9 (and maybe also Captain Britain & The Mighty Defenders #1-2).

Krisis Regrets: I should’ve simply included this as “Avengers by Al Ewing” to also include Ultimates, below, since it shares several cast members. This was one of our biggest errors!

Avengers and X-MEN: AXIS (includes Uncanny Avengers (2015A))
See Guide to Uncanny Avengers. While this would primarily include the AXIS event and its tie-ins, it would also scoop up Remender’s Uncanny Avengers (2015A) #1-5, and maybe also his Avengers: Rage of Ultron OGN since he is the primary writer of so much of this book.

Avengers by Mark Waid (2015 – 2017)
See Guide Avengers Flagships titles (2010 – Present). This would collect All-New, All-Different Avengers (2015) #1-15 & Annual 1, Avengers (2016) #1-11 & 1.1-5.1, Avengers (2017 / 1963) #672-674, and Champions (2016) #13-15.

It could also add all of Avengers: No Surrender from Avengers (2017 / 1963) #673-690, also co-written by Waid and also potentially abandoned.

Avengers: New Avengers & USAvengers by Al Ewing
See Guide Avengers Flagships titles (2010 – Present). This would collect New Avengers (2015) #1-18 and U.S.Avengers (2017) #1-12. This is a very different run than Ewing’s Mighty/Ultimates run, and I really think it should just exist in its own book.

Avengers: Uncanny Avengers (2015 – 2018) by Duggan & Zub
See Guide to Uncanny Avengers. This would collect Uncanny Avengers (2015B) #1-30, material from Avengers (2015) #0, and perhaps also Remender’s Avengers: Rage of Ultron OGN, which ties into this run. (But, not Annual 1, which is a Scarlet Witch tie-in by James Robinson).

Ultimates by Al Ewing
See Guide to Mighty Avengers. This would collect Ultimates (2015) #1-11, The Ultimates2 (2016) #1-9 & 100, and material from Avengers (2015) #0.

Krisis Regrets: I should’ve simply included this as “Avengers by Al Ewing.” It was over-tuning to have both slim books on the poll at the same time.

Hawkeye: Client Barton (2015 – 2020) (Lemire, Duggan, Walker, & Rosenberg)
See Guide Avengers Flagships titles (2010 – Present). This would grab Occupy Avengers (2018) #1-8, which is really just a Hawkeye vehicle, along with all of his other post-Fraction material.

Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 1
Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 2
See Guide Avengers Flagships titles (2010 – Present). In total, this would collect Avengers (2018) #1-66, Avengers 1,000,000 BC (2022) #1, Avengers Forever (2021) #1-15, Avengers Forever Infinity Comic (2022) #1-4, Avengers Assemble: Alpha (2022) #1, Avengers Assemble: Omega (2022) #1, and material from Free Comic Book Day 2018 (Avengers/Captain America) #1 (Avengers Story), material from Free Comic Book Day 2019 (Avengers/Savage Avengers) #1 (Avengers Story), Free Comic Book Day 2021: Avengers/Hulk #1 (Avengers Story), and maybe material from Marvel Legacy (2017) #1.