consume

Near Mint Condition recently announced two of our first new Marvel omnibus volumes for January 2027, and they’re both a bit unexpected: Runaways by Rainbow Rowell and Predator vs. The Marvel Universe!

Runaways by Rainbow Rowell Omnibus is one of my favorite Marvel runs of the past decade. Rowell’s run follows a group of characters who were always more entertaining as found family with interpersonal drama than they were as superheroes.

Under her pen, they were slightly more grown up but even more unsure of themselves than ever. If you love a Manga-esque slice of life drama set against a Marvel backdrop, this is a book you’ll dig. This is effectively Runaways Omnibus Vol. 3… and there is no Vol. 2 yet! See how it fits into continuity and how it has been collected already in my Guide to Runaways.

Seeing this Runaways book on the schedule tells me that the Sensational She-Hulk by Rainbow Rowell omnibus sold at-or-better-than expectations for Marvel. Runaways is not a seller on its own, so there isn’t a big motivation to put it on the release schedule. And, if Rowell’s She-Hulk underperformed and Marvel truly wanted to release a Runaways book as some kind of publishing or media tie-in, this could easily be the gap-filling Runaways Omnibus Vol. 2 instead of Rowell’s run… and, they’ve had 8yrs to publish that book since Vol. 1 was released!).

The fact that this early 2027 Rowell’s Runaways is a tell that Marvel thinks it will be a comparable seller to She-Hulk, whereas they don’t have a similar comparable on the Runaways Vol. 2 material (especially since that would involve marketing it under Joss Whedon’s name).

Predator vs. The Marvel Universe Omnibus is an unexpected omnibus because it’s so short – just 17 issues of Predators beating up on Wolverine, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and the Marvel Universe as a whole. I guess once you graduate to beating up the whole Marvel Universe there’s nowhere else to go… though I would’ve dug Predator vs. Krakoa, Predator vs. Asgard, and Predator vs. Guardians of the Galaxy!

Alas, we never got those. Each of the four titles in this book had some high points, but I wouldn’t call any of them modern classics that demanded an omnibus. See my Guide to Predator (eventually) for collection information.

Personally, I am surprised to see such a slim modern Predator book before a classic Alien vs Predator book. Maybe sales on the classic line Alien and Predator omnis were soft enough to make Marvel shy on an AVP omni?