Elektra & Daredevil Omnibus Mapping for the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot

Until April 5, 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 Marvel’s Daredevil & Elektra.

This post explains titles and potential Elektra & Daredevil 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.

Daredevil is often viewed as Marvel’s marquee character who attracts the biggest names to write an endless string of acclaimed runs! The problem is that Marvel’s collection strategy has often focused only on those runs of they are from 1998 and onward! While the Epic Collection line has finally filled in all of the many gaps in Daredevil’s original 1964 series, it’s still one of the least-collected of all of Marvel Silver Age titles.

Meanwhile, Elektra’s only solo omnibus is Elektra: Assassin! As she increasingly become a solo character from 1997 forward, none of her material has been collected cohesively in omnibus format.

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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Daredevil Omnibus Mapping

Since Daredevil is so well-collected in omnibus after 1998, there’s only one book of leftovers to collect from that period! However, when it comes to his 1964 Silver Age run, there’s still a lot of issues to cover outside of Frank Miller’s famous run. See Guide to Daredevil for existing collections of all of these comics.

Daredevil Vol. 4
This month Daredevil scores his third Silver Age classic omnibus, meaning he has now pulled ahead of Hulk and is no longer the 60s character lagging the furthest behind in the omnibus game. Daredevil’s omnibuses have collected more than 3 Masterworks each, with the three existing books covering through the end of Marvel Masterworks Volume 11!

That’s all because of this book! This volume needs to collect right to the start of Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil (1964), which began with issue #158. That means this Volume 4 will collect the contents of three omnibuses to include Daredevil (1964) #120-157 & Annual 4, Ghost Rider (1973) #20; Marvel Premiere (1972) #39-40 & 43; and material from Ghost Rider (1973) #19.

After that comes a tricky question – will the Daredevil omnibus line collect around the existing Frank Miller omnibus and it’s gap of notorious fill-in issue #162? If so, this could simply add #162, or collect all of #158-162. Or, will they re-issue the Frank Miller omnibus with that issue included?!

You don’t have to answer that question right now! A vote for this book is just a vote for “get us to Miller.”

Daredevil by Dennis O’Neil Omnibus (1983-1986)
After the end of Frank Millers run, there are fill-in writers on Daredevil (1964) #192-193 (one of whom is Larry Hama!) before Dennis O’Neil takes over writing duties. O’Neil writes through #226 with a few gaps and co-writers tagging Miller back in for his famous Born Again arc.

A vote for this book is a vote for an omnibus collecting #192-225 and other contemporaneous issues.

Realistically, it might make sense to press on to include Miller’s “Born Again” from #226-233 (and maybe also #234-235) so this marries up cleanly to the next volume even if you don’t own the “Daredevil by Miller Companion,” but you’re not voting to answer that question right now.

Daredevil by Ann Nocenti (1986-1991)
The reigning champion of the Tigereyes Poll! Ann Nocenti’s run on Daredevil has been a popular vote for as long as this poll has existed.

Nocenti wrote Daredevil (1964) #236, 238-245, 247-257, & 259-291. A vote for this book is not a vote for or against those gaps, it’s just a vote to get started with collecting this period!

Since it involves a 55 issue range just of regular monthly issues before getting into Annuals or contemporaneous issues, this might actually be a two-volume set. Based on the Epic Collecting mapping, it could add Annual 5-6, Punisher (1987) #10, and material from Punisher (1987) Annual 3, Incredible Hulk (1968) Annual 16, and Silver Surfer (1987) Annual 3.

Daredevil by D. G. Chichester (1991-95)
D.G. Chichester takes over directly from Nocenti with Daredevil (1964) #292 and wrote until issue #332, but didn’t pen any annuals in that period. This is the run that ends with Daredevil in the black armor!

A vote for this title is a vote in favor of seeing this collected in omnibus. That would probably follow the Epic Collection mapping, which means it would include Daredevil (1964) #292-332 & Annual 7-10, a crossover with Nomad (1992) #4-6 and Punisher War Journal (1988) #45-47, Daredevil/Black Widow: Abattoir (1993) OGN, Daredevil: The Man Without Fear (1993) #1-5, and material from Marvel Holiday Special (1991) #2.

That’s a pretty hefty book of more than 50 issues, but Marvel seems more willing to stretch into that territory with 90s omnibuses where material has already been remastered for print compared to their Silver and Bronze Age material that relies on Marvel Masterworks for its source files.

Daredevil: Fall from Grace Omnibus (DeMatteis, Kesel, Kelly, Lobdell; 1995-98)
This book would collect the remainder of Daredevil (1964) through its final issue, #380. Daredevil was one of the few Silver Age books to survive the post-Onslaught massacre which ended all of the other remaining long-running Marvel books save for Uncanny X-Men and Incredible Hulk as their heroes headed off into the Heroes Reborn pocket universe.

Epic Collections have already mapped this as Daredevil (1964) #333-380, -1, Daredevil / Deadpool Annual ’97, and Elektra: Root of Evil #1-4.

That’s another book that weighs in right around 50 issues, which hopefully would be considered feasible by Marvel to knock out this big chunk of somewhat unloved late-90s material.

Daredevil Companion (1998 – 2008) Omnibus
Here’s the story with this unusual but very important book: In the 2000s, Marvel leaned hard into collecting only the Brian Bendis issues of Daredevil (1998) in every possible format, including omnibus. Although we eventually got a Joe Quesada / Kevin Smith omnibus to precede the Bendis run, that still left several gaps and ignored tie-in mini-series (even one by Bendis!),

Those gaps are abetted by a big gap in in-story time between issues #16-20 and a year-long gap of in-story time between #50-56. Clearly Daredevil was doing things in those periods!

Over the years Marvel has worked to rectify this in a number of paperbacks. However, since they keep going back to print on the same Brian Bendis omnibuses (and Ed Brubaker omnibuses that follow them), your friendly neighborhood poll committee and past voters feel this volume would fill in those gaps perfectly.

What would this include? I think at it’s core everyone would agree that you are voting for an omnibus that includes Daredevil (1998) #20-25 & 51-55 and Daredevil: Ninja (2000) #1-3.

To that we might add Daredevil/Spider-Man (2001) #1-4, Spider-Man/Daredevil (2001) #1, the unfinished Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target (2002) #1; Daredevil: Redemption (2005) #1-6; and Daredevil vs. Punisher (2005) #1-6. It could also press on to 2012 add Bendis’s out-of-continuity Daredevil: End of Days (2018) #1-8, or the uncollected Daredevil: Black & White (2010) #1 and Daredevil: Cage Match (2010) #1 (which has never been collected with Daredevil material, only Cage material).

You don’t have to have an opinion on all of that right now. All you need to know is you want those missing issues of the 1998 series and Bendis’s Ninja!

Elektra Omnibus Mapping

Elektra has a curious character history. She appeared, was a very big deal only to Daredevil, and died before any hero other than Daredevil could meet her! Retcons have inserted more interactions into her early life, but as originally written there was no reason for any Marvel heroes to mourn or miss her in the 90s at the point of her return.

That was both a curse and a gift for the character – she had no built-in plot hooks outside of Daredevil, but there was a whole Marvel universe for writers to explore with her! That lead to a lot of interesting comics, none of which have been collected in omnibus – though they’re all covered in the Guide to Elektra.

Elektra by Milligan, Hama & Deodato Omnibus
Elektra’s return has been collected in a paperback titled Elektra By Peter Milligan, Larry Hama, & Mike Deodato Jr.: The Complete Collection. That’s a mouthful!

That book weighs in at 480 pages and collects just 20 issues of Elektra (1996) #1-19 & -1. A vote for this omnibus is a vote to upgrade that book to oversize format.

(It also might make sense to include her contemporaneous appearances in Wolverine (1998) #100-106, 102.5 & Uncanny X-Men (1963) #332, which relaunched her character with an intro to the wider world of Marvel. No Elektra fan should be expected to track down multiple X-Men omnibuses!)

However, Marvel could also get more creative with the mapping! This could be converted into an “Early Years” omnibus that also includes all of Elektra’s prior key issues from Miller’s run, as well as her Root of Evil mini-series. Yes, that’s a double-dip, but it’s a double dip that crosses several different Daredevil omnibuses, so it makes some sense to centralize all of the material here. It could also pull forward the Elektra: The Hand (2004) #1-5 mini-series to explain her resurrection.

However, you’re not voting on all that. You’re voting for a book that primarily collects that 1996 series!

Elektra: Marvel Knights Omnibus (1998-2004)
This is a straight-forward collection of Elektra’s Marvel Knights series, which includes some of Brian Bendis’s earliest writing at Marvel, plus issues by Greg Rucka and Robert Rodi.

This would collect Elektra (2001) #1-35. It would also likely include an appearance in Marvel Knights Double Shot #3 and the Elektra: Glimpse & Echo #1-4 mini-series, as well as some other contemporaneous Marvel Knights material (though that could be collected in full in its own omnibus).

The 2001 series is long enough that it just doesn’t make sense to combine this with the 1996 series or with the material that come afterward.

Elektra: Modern Years Omnibus (2010-2019)
We goofed on the dates here – it should begin in 2004! That’s because this modern omnibus would pick up after the end of Marvel Knights.

That means it could begin with Elektra: The Hand (2004) #1-5 – explaining how Elektra was resurrected years prior. It would go on to collect all of her key appearances outside of Thunderbolts (2012) right up until she joins the cast of Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil!

However, a vote for this book is primarily a vote to collect Dark Reign: Elektra (2009) #1-5, Haden Blackman’s electrifying Elektra (2014) #1-11, and Elektra (2017) #1-5.

Daredevil Omnibus Mapping

Elektra Omnibus Mapping

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