Fantastic Four 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 Marvel’s Fantastic Four comics.

This post explains titles and potential Fantastic Four 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.

As Marvel’s “First Family,” Fantastic Four already has solid coverage in omnibus format. However, we still over a dozen omnibuses to completely cover Fantastic Four in oversize format! They slightly lag behind Avengers partly because the Fantastic Four isn’t yet in the MCU, which creates obvious omnibus demand. That’s all going to change soon – so it’s time to start voting for more Fantastic Four books!

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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Fantastic Four Omnibus Mapping: Silver Age & Bronze Age

There isn’t much Silver Age and Bronze Age material to cover for Fantastic Four, since Marvel has now issued five volumes of their classic omnibus line plus a pair of John Byrne omnibuses! That means we only need two more volumes to take us into the 80s. All of these issues (and the existing omnibuses) are covered in my Guide to Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four Vol. 6
The classic Fantastic Four omnibus line has stuck to the rule that a single omnibus always equals three Marvel Masterworks, even if they sometimes slightly fudge the breaking points between omnibuses compared to Masterworks. Omnibus Volume 5 and Masterworks 15 both end with issue #163, so this should be easy, right? Just start from #164 mash together Masterworks 16+17+18!

In this case, maybe not. That would take us through issue #203, and the first of the John Byrne omnibuses begins with #215-218, 220-221, 232-260.

Since the Byrne books skip some issues in the first omnibus, there’s just no clean way to marry this classic line perfectly with the Byrne line. One approach would be to have this book include most of Masterwork 19 – through issue #214. That would meet the beginning of Byrne Vol. 1, but we’ll still be missing #219 and #222-231 in omnibus. Another approach would be to have this Vol. 6 break slightly earlier, and then have Vol. 7 include only Masterworks 19 + 20 – ending on issue #231. That way, Vol. 8 and the more-complete Byrne Vol. 2 would be the same thing.

Or, maybe the classic line just ignores the Byrne Omnibus mapping entirely! That’s why we didn’t include any Masterworks numbers or issue ranges on this book. It’s just the next book – however Marvel decides to deal with that.

Krisis Regrets: We should have labeled this “includes Perez” since it contains all of George Perez’s brief-but-beloved run.

The Human Torch & The Thing: Strange Tales
Human Torch had a pair of his own Silver Age Masterworks collecting his solo stories in Strange Tales Strange Tales (1951) #101-134 & Annual 2. Thing popped up as well! This has already been collected in a hefty 512 paperback in 2018, which is a perfect length for a slim (but not tiny!) omnibus.

Marvel Two-in-One Vol. 1
The Thing’s team-up title! This could follow the “3 Masterworks = 1 Omnibus” rule, which works perfectly since it looks like this title will be done in nine Masterworks volumes. It would collect Marvel Feature #11-12, Marvel Two-in-One (1974) #1-36 & Annual 1, Marvel Team-Up (1972) #47, and Fantastic Four Annual #11.

Fantastic Four Omnibus Mapping: The 80s & 90s

From the mid-80s to 2000 represents the largest period of missing Fantastic Four omnibuses. Our current coverage sits at a big fat ZERO! Luckily, we have these issues in collected edition thanks to the Epic Collection line. All of these issues are covered in my Guide to Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four by Stern & Englehart
This is effectively a “Fantastic Four AFTER Byrne” omnibus, which assumes that both the Masterworks line and the omnibus line will work around the Byrne mappings by ending at issue #295 (and I suspect they will).

This book would then collect Fantastic Four (1961) #295-333 and all of the Annuals and additional appearances in this period.

Krisis Regrets: We should have put “(post-Byrne)” in this title. Even for me it isn’t immediately obvious where this run fits based on the author’s names.

Fantastic Four by Walt Simonson (includes Avengers material)
This would collect Simonson’s incredibly popular run on Fantastic Four (1961) #334-354, as well as Annuals and additions appears in this period.

It could also include Avengers (1963) #288-304 & Annual 17-18, which includes Simsonson’s work on #291-299.

Krisis Regrets: We should have included the years and issues ranges in this book title, as well as saying “includes The New Fantastic Four.” I don’t think the average reader knows when Simonson wrote either of these books.

Fantastic Four by Tom DeFalco
This would immediately follow the Simonson run, picking up with issue #355 (which is by Danny Fingeroth; DeFalco joined in the next issue). Even if this period isn’t a solid gold hit, it’s much-beloved by 90s Fantastic Four fans and regularly shows up on the poll.

Really, this would probably be a “Volume 1” omnibus, since DeFalco wrote the book all the way to the end of this volume with issue #416. That’s 62 issues, even without adding in Annuals and crossovers.

Fantastic Force by Tom Brevoort
Fantastic Force existed for 18 issues entirely to the side of Fantastic Four (though they briefly crossed over with Atlantis Rising).

An 18-issue omnibus would be pretty slim, but this could also work as a “Companion” volume by picking all of the quarterly Fantastic Four Unlimited (1993) #1-12 (which were 2-3x long) and the supporting title Fantastic Four: Unplugged (1995) #1-6.

Or maybe those would be wrapped into the DeFalco books and this would do something entirely different! Again, this wasn’t a mapping poll, but a “don’t miss a single title” poll. We want to see every vote in favor of Fantastic Force, no matter what might be collected alongside of it.

Fantastic Four: Heroes Return Vol. 1 (AKA by Claremont)
This would collect all of Chris Claremont’s run on Fantastic Four (1998), which has already been collected in paperback as Heroes Return – The Complete Collection Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. However, I’d suggest that this dip two issues into Vol. 3, where Salvador Larroca wraps up Claremont’s plot threads before Carlos Pacheco takes over.

Fantastic Four Omnibus Mapping: The 00s

We already have two big pieces of the 00s Fantastic Four Omnibus Mapping: the mid-00s hunk of the “Waid & Wieringo” run and then, after a brief gap, a Millar & Hitch omnibus and Hickman’s material directly following that. That means we just need to get to Waid/Wieringo and then fill the gap from there to Millar/Hitch. All of these issues (and the existing omnibuses) are covered in my Guide to Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four: Heroes Return Vol. 2
This book would collect all of Fantastic Four (1998) after Chris Claremont’s departure to butt up against the “Waid & Wieringo” omnibus that begins with issue #60.

Krisis Regrets: We should have added “(pre – Waid & Wieringo)” to this title to make the mapping more clear.

Fantastic Four: Marvel Knights
This was a 30-issue, slightly-more-mature take on Fantastic Four that exists entirely in continuity and works alongside the “Waid & Wieringo” run and extends slightly past it. It’s the perfect size and self-contained scope for an omnibus!

Fantastic Four by Kesel, JMS, & McDuffie (2005 – 2008)
This would collect Fantastic Four (1998 / 1963) #525-553 to marry up with the “by Millar & Hitch Omnibus” on the other side. That’s a somewhat slim omnibus, but there were also a number of mini-series and side appearances in this era including Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1-4, X-Men/Fantastic Four (2005) AKA X4 #1-5, Fantastic Four: Foes #1-6, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #1-4, Fantastic Four: Books of Doom #1-6.

The Human Torch & The Thing by Slott & Kesel
This mirrors a 300-ish page trade paperback that collects Thing (2006) #1-8 by Dan Slott and Spider-Man / Human Torch (2005) #1-5 by Karl Kesel. It’s on the poll because if we left it off there would be people who ask about it. However, I think there’s a strong argument to be made that this should just be lumped into that prior omnibus, since it has Kesel’s name on it already

Fantastic Four Omnibus Mapping: The 10s & 00s

We have an impressive amount of Fantastic Four mapped into omnibuses in the first half the 2010s, with all of Hickman’s run in omnibus to cover through the end of 2012, and then Matt Fraction’s run in omnibus to take us through 2014. The coverage stops there, but we only need two books to get to the present Ryan North run! That’s because there were no Fantastic Four comics from mid-2015 just prior to Secret Wars (2015) all the way until late in 2018 when Dan Slott launched his run.

Some of you might be saying, “Wait! What about Chip Zdarsky!” Chip’s run on Marvel 2-in-One has already been collected in an all-in-one hardcover! There’s nothing about it left to omnibize! Although… I suppose we could re-issue that hardcover with his X-Men/Fantastic Four (2020) #1-4 included… but then we get into Krakoan nonsense. Perhaps it’s better we leave well enough alone.

All of these issues are covered in my Guide to Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four by James Robinson
This would collect the relatively slim run following Fraction and prior to Secret Wars.

It would collect Fantastic Four (2014) #1-14 & Annual and #642-645. That’s only 19 issues! There’s not much more to add. While some may suggest pulling in Marvel 2-in-One (2017) by Chip Zdarsky, it would be weird to include material from after Secret Wars since it represents such a massive status quo shift for the F4 in specific.

However, we could add Invisible Woman’s appearance in SHIELD (2015) #4 and Avengers World (2014) #15-16 is a Valeria/Doom story that fits into this run.

Fantastic Four by Dan Slott
This is a straight-forward omnibus to map, since this run has already been collected in oversize hardcover.

It would collect Fantastic Four (2018) #1-46, Fantastic Four Wedding Special (2018) #1, Fantastic Four: 4 Yancy Street (2019) #1, Fantastic Four: Negative Zone (2019) #1, Empyre: Fantastic Four (2020) #0, Empyre Fallout: Fantastic Four (2020) #1, Fantastic Four: Road Trip (2020) #1, Fantastic Four: Grimm Noir (2020) #1, Fantastic Four Reckoning War: Alpha (2022) #1, and Reckoning War: The Trial of the Watcher (2022) #1. Plus, it would probably add the pair of post-Slott issues by David Pepose, #47-48, which tied into Judgment War.

That’s a 57-issue omnibus – and many of them are double-size issues! I think that means we’re actually looking at two Dan Slott era omnibuses! That’s actually a good thing, because it means we could also squeeze in Invisible Woman (2019) #1-5, Future Foundation (2019) #1-5, the three-part Prodigal Sun series of one-shots, Fantastic Four: Marvels Snapshots (2020) #1, and maybe even X-Men/Fantastic Four (2020) #1-4.

Comments

Bobotts says

March 31, 2024 at 10:40 pm

Hey Krisis! A couple of questions on two of the potential FF mappings:

1) Does the Simonson Avengers content play into the events of his FF material? Or would this be more of a creator-centric title to collect the material of that era?
2) Do you see a case to include Empyre #1-6 in a one of the ‘Fantastic Four by Dan Slott’ volumes? Marvel seems to be trending in the direction of including certain events in relevant omnibus volumes (i.e. Secret Empire in Cap By Spencer 2, King in Black in Venom By Cates, etc.)… wondering if you think this would be a fit in this case?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

- krisis says
  
  April 1, 2024 at 12:48 am
  
  (1) The Simonson FF volume is tricky in the same way that the Byrne Avengers omnibus is a Catch-22, in that there’s probably no way to do a creator-centric book that perfectly maps into the ongoing run of omnis without adding material from another title – at which point it’s no longer a valid part of the ongoing run of omnis. But, the poll doesn’t dictate that we solve for that answer right now, so “Simonson Avengers / FF” could just mean “get to a book that would include this content.”
  .
  (2) I think including Empyre in the Slott volumes would be a good way to differentiate them from the OHCs. However, I question how much each issue of Empyre really relates to the F4 compared to King in Black with Cates, Devil’s Reign with Daredevil, etc. But, again, standard answer: the poll doesn’t dictate we figure that out right now! If you think it should include Empyre, that’s what you are voting for! (And, at that point, I think it must be two volumes.)
  
Red1116 says

April 4, 2024 at 3:11 pm

krisis, I’m really enjoying these guides! I’ve been voting in the poll since at least the sixth annual poll in 2018. Back then you used to post your mapping thoughts as tigereyes posted results, which was just as much fun as the poll itself!

I hope you don’t mind if I take a stab at answering Bobott’s first question. The Simonson FF omni is one of those that I’m always hoping to see one day, even if it doesn’t make my top 10 for the poll. The story arc in Avengers 294 – 297 is followed up by Simonson in the arc that starts in FF 337, so there is a definite story link. I’ve also been told that there is a story connection to issues 9 – 12 of the 1985 Eternals maxiseries; Simonson wrote just those final four issues. I haven’t actually read that Eternals series yet, so can’t confirm. (And the Eternals series is already in the Eternals omni.) But I have read the Avengers and FF runs, and they would go well together in one omni IMHO.

- krisis says
  
  April 4, 2024 at 5:33 pm
  
  Thanks so much, Red1116! Honestly, it bummed me out so much that I had to cut off my mapping posts in 2017 – but, I was in the middle of an international move! Then, every year since then things have been extra-wild in my life in March – April. I was excited to finally get back to covering the Top 60 books last year. With having the opportunity to work on the poll itself this year, I felt like I had to make the time to do anything I’ve always wanted to do.
  .
  RE: the Simonson omnibus, this is why I’m happy we didn’t get too prescriptive by pushing mapping ideas into the book titles on the poll. I absolutely agree that you need Simonson’s stuff from #294-297 at minimum for the FF book, but I didn’t know about the Eternals connection! I think ultimate if the Simonson FF book does well then Marvel needs to really think about what would make that book great – and it might not be as expansive as what I mapped.