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Marvel Omnibus Reprint: Iron Man by Michelinie, Layton, & Romita Jr Omnibus

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Iron Man by Michelinie Layton and Romite Jr OmnibusNear Mint Condition announced a Marvel omnibus reprint for April 2027 that is massively popular but also surprisingly controversial: Iron Man by Michelinie, Layton, & Romita Jr Omnibus.

What is this material? The Iron Man by Michelinie, Layton, & Romita Jr Omnibus collects what is widely considered to be the first truly great run on Iron Man. It includes the complete “Demon in a Bottle” storyline focused on Tony’s alcoholism as well as several other key classic stories. Plus, it was the run that introduced James “Rhodey” Rhodes – the future War Machine!

This omnibus is a stone cold classic – truly some of the best comics of the Bronze Age.

So… what is it controversial?

It’s not the material that is controversial, or even that is being reprinted. Just as with last week’s announcement of the reprint of Deadpool by Joe Kelly omnibus, we haven’t had this book of “ought to be evergreen” material in print since 2013.

The controversy has to do with OTHER REPRINTS of this material. Specifically, the currently in-progress reprints in the classic Masterworks-based omnibus line as well as in the Epic line.

When Marvel released Invincible Iron Man Omnibus Vol. 4 in May, literally every single omnibus fan fully expected it to buck the trend of following the exact breakpoints of the Marvel Masterworks to end at issue #114 so that it would line up perfectly with this book. It would only involve adding three extra issues on top of the scheduled chunk of 3 Masterworks.

Then, Marvel could re-release this volume as “Volume 5” just as  just did with Captain America by Jack Kirby, perhaps re-issuing it with new scans. There’s literally nothing else to add – there are no side appearances or crossovers in this period. It’s just a straight sprint of Iron Man (1968).

Instead, not only did Marvel flub that by ending Volume 4 exactly where the Masterworks broke off – three issues short of this book – now they are reprinting this book, which is the exact same book as the impending Volume 5 except Volume 5 will have those three gap issues.

It’s inexplicable. And, it’s going to cost Marvel thousands of dollars as people either buy this and skip Volume 5, or skip this and wait for Volume 5. But, that’s not the only controversial aspect of this reprint! [Read more…] about Marvel Omnibus Reprint: Iron Man by Michelinie, Layton, & Romita Jr Omnibus

Marvel Omnibus Announcement: Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 1

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Avengers (2018) #1 promotional cover artNear Mint Condition announced another Marvel omnibus for March 2027, and it’s the start of collecting a massive recent run of comics: Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 1!

For the past 25 years, we’ve seen Avengers comics rotate through three phases, though not always in the same order: a “classic” phase where there are lots of recognizable cast members, a “new” or “reinvention” phase where several atypical Avengers are recruited, and a “decadent” phase where it’s everyone as an Avenger to tell a massive and maybe even slightly outlandish story.

Perez & Busiek? Classic. Bendis? New, obviously! Hickman, just as obviously a reinvention.

Things got slightly less clear after Secret Wars (2015), when All-New All-Different Marvel brought us an Avengers team that felt both classic and new, thanks to it being nearly a full team of “Legacy” heroes – Sam Wilson as Cap, the female Thor, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales as Spider-Man, Sam Alexander as Nova, and the new Unstoppable Wasp – Nadia Van Dyne.

Similarly, Jason Aaron’s run started out classic and turned decadent. The first two years of the run had a fairly standard, largely recognizable cast. Of course, there were signs of decadence – including the team living inside of a Celestial in the Arctic Circle and going to war with vampires! At the midway point the team had a classic tournament arc over who would control the Phoenix Force and fought against a rampaging Khonshu. [Read more…] about Marvel Omnibus Announcement: Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 1

Marvel Omnibus Reprint: Deadpool by Joe Kelly

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Near Mint Condition announced a Marvel omnibus reprint for March 2027 that really took me by surprise: Deadpool by Joe Kelly Omnibus.

The Deadpool by Joe Kelly omnibus was originally published in 2013. It collects the first three years of Deadpool (1997), the first ongoing series for the Merc With a Mouth. That portion of the run was written entirely by Joe Kelly, with Christopher Priest taking over in the following issue.

From a timing perspective, this reprint makes sense. This new printing of Deadpool by Joe Kelly will arrive 14 years after the original omnibus. Finding copies of the original printing for sale could be a tough task.

The thing that surprises me is picking this Deadpool omnibus – or, really, any Deadpool omnibus, since Marvel has seemed allergic to printing any oversize Deadpool for several years running aside from Deadpool & X-Force Omnibus in 2025 (which is really just X-Force Omnibus Vol. 2 with a clever marketing title).

If we were going to see any Deadpool solo omnibus be reprinted, my money would have been on the Deadpool by Posehn & Duggan Omnibus – a run that was instantly recognized as a modern classic and which pairs well with his MCU persona and joke density.

However, the x-factor here (lower case x-factor, not the X-Team) is Joe Kelly. Joe Kelly is currently helming Amazing Spider-Man (2025) for Marvel, and it has been consistently one of their top-selling titles as well as one of the best-written. It is a long-established fact that when an author is current active at Marvel, chances of their material hitting omnibus is significantly higher. [Read more…] about Marvel Omnibus Reprint: Deadpool by Joe Kelly

Marvel Omnibus Announcement: Marvel Team-Up Omnibus Vol. 2

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Near Mint Condition announced another new Marvel omnibus coming in January 2027, and to me this one makes perfect sense: Marvel Team-Up Omnibus Vol. 2.

For those not in the know, Marvel Team-Up (1972) was essentially the original secondary Spider-Man title. Almost every issue featured Spider-Man teaming up with a different Marvel character (although Human Torch took over for Spidey a limited number of times).

That didn’t necessarily mean that every issue was a one-shot story. There were some multi-issue storylines, with guest stars tagging in and out as the team-up while the story continued.

With Marvel Team-Up Omnibus Vol. 1 out in December 2025, Marvel finally started collecting this Spider-Title in oversize format. That book covered 1972 to 1975, which put this omnibus line a full decade behind the main omni line for Amazing Spider-Man (1963).

That’s why I had this book at #22 on my 2027 Marvel Fantasy Draft Ballot. With other Spider-Title omnis converging on a point in the 80s that is very well collected, it makes sense for the next classic Spider-Man omnibus to instead be something that is under-collected. [Read more…] about Marvel Omnibus Announcement: Marvel Team-Up Omnibus Vol. 2

Marvel Reprint Announcement: X-Men – X of Swords Oversize Hardcover!

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Near Mint Condition just announced a very welcome reprint that is a major surprise, even if Omar already tipped that we could expect it a few months ago: X-Men – X of Swords Oversize Hardcover!

First, let’s talk about why a reprint of X of Swords is so incredibly needed!

X of Swords was the first (and only!) linewide direct crossover of the X-Men’s Age of Krakoa from 2019 to 2024. The story kicked off at the one-year mark of Krakoa continuity, weaving together threads from Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men (2019) and Tini Howard’s Excalibur (2019). The story massively expanded the lore of Krakoa, Apocalypse, and Otherworld in a totally amazing way. For me, it’s one of the best X-Men event storylines of all time – up there with Inferno and Second Coming!

The original deluxe hardcover of X of Swords was the initial release of the story as a collected edition just months after it wrapped up, in January 2021. That made it the FIRST Krakoa oversize hardcover after HOXPOX; the hardcover collections of single series didn’t hit shelves until several months after this release.

At the time, that made a lot of sense: the single series collections skipped X of Swords, as did the X-Men by Hickman omnibus, so you’d want it on your bookshelf to intermingle with those books.

Even knowing that would be the case, demand for the X of Swords oversize hardcover far outstripped supply – as is the case for just about any X-Men even in hardcover. Prices were already getting wild before Marvel announced the X-Men: Age of Krakoa – Dawn of X Omnibus Vol. 1 for release in September 2025.

That announcement sent fans into wild speculation. Would X of Swords by the Volume 3 of that omnibus line? Or, would Marvel expect you to have already bought the hardcover?

Personally, I thought Marvel would do an expanded X of Swords as “Dawn of X Omnibus Vol. 3” that collected past it to some of the epilogue stories that followed, particular in X-Men (2019) and Excalibur (2019). So, I was surprised when the next Krakoa omnibus after Dawn of X Omnibus Vol. 2 was in fact Reign of X Omnibus Vol. 1. They had skipped X of Swords entirely!

At that point, things were looking a bit dire. Marvel could have announced this reprint to hit at the same time of that Reign of X book this September, but they didn’t. Prices spiked even higher – the book was selling on eBay for $300 or more! [Read more…] about Marvel Reprint Announcement: X-Men – X of Swords Oversize Hardcover!