Near Mint Condition announced one of the final Marvel omnibuses for the first half of 2027, and this June 2027 book is arriving earlier than many of us guessed it would! Of course, there’s always money in Spider-Man – especially right now – so it’s the perfect time to announce this book: Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 8
The “Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus” line are what many of us refer to as a “Masterworks” line of omnibuses. That’s because they are generally based on the restoration work and mapping of Marvel Masterworks hardcovers. Masterworks began by collecting their characters’ first stories from the Silver Age, but have now extended through the Silver Age into Bronze (and, in some cases, beyond).
New volumes of this Amazing Spider-Man line used to arrive at a 2-5yr interval, which is why it has been somewhat shocking (and prediction-defying) that we’ve now had three volumes in three years – Volume 6 in 2025, Volume 7 out last month, and now Volume 8 in 2027.
That is the quickest pace Marvel has ever set for a Masterworks-based line of omnis. We have no precedent for it whatsoever.
I suspect that part of that accelerated pace has to do with what this book double dips and what is just on the other side of the contents of this omnibus.
First, let’s talk double-dipping: Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 8 contains the contents of only two Masterworks, down from the usual three. And, the contents of those same two Masterworks happen to also be half of of the contents of the Spider-Man by Roger Stern Omnibus, minus one issue (Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #252, really an epilogue issue for the Stern book).
(The other half of the Stern book is about 1.5 MMW’s of Spectacular Spider-Man.)
There’s no getting around that double dip and there’s no way to push any significant extra content into this omnibus to distinguish it from the Roger Stern Omnibus. Marvel scraped together The Marvel Guide to Collecting Comics (1982) and The Official Marvel Try-Out Book (1983) as bonus content, but that’s pretty scant. Not enough to tempt someone who has the Stern book to also buy this one.
Maybe that’s a good thing? Fans now have the option of either keeping Stern or grabbing this, much as Marvel gave a similar either/or option with Uncanny X-Men Volume 5 vs Mutant Massacre Prelude.
Now, Marvel could have put a third Masterworks of material into Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 8. That would have forced people to double dip for this book. But, then we get into what’s on the other side of this omnibus.
This book runs right up to the start of what Marvel has alternatingly called “The Black Costume Saga” and “The Alien Costume Saga,” which results from Peter Parker returning from the original Secret Wars with his black symbiote suit. That begins in issue #252, and we have the year-long storyline completely collected from every Spider-Man title in Spider-Man: The Complete Black Costume Saga Omnibus.
I think Marvel was in a hurry to get to Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 8 because they wanted to marry this classic, Masterworks-based line to the end of the Bronze Age and the appearance of the symbiote suit.
There are another four Masterworks already released, so Marvel could keep going with Omnibus Volume 8. However, it’s also possible they switch over to an anthology-style, line-wide set of omnibuses that follow the all-in-one mapping of Spider-Man: The Complete Black Costume Saga Omnibus to take us up through the well-collected Michelinie era that begins with Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #296.
There’s really no way to know which way Marvel will go from here. Whatever the next collection of classic Amazing Spider-Man (1963) will be, it will be some form of surprise!
You can see the full reading order of this period in my Spider-Man Collecting Guide & Reading Order (1963-2018). Did you have this book on your Marvel Omnibus 2027 Fantasy Draft ballot? I didn’t because I was sure Marvel wouldn’t keep up this annual pace, especially with the Stern double dip looming. More fool me!
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