Scarlet Witch

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #45 to 41

June 7, 2016 by krisis

rsz_2016-06-06_095604 I’m back with the next five votes for most-wanted Omnibus volumes from major Marvel fans as collated via the Annual Secret Ballot by TigerEyes. I covered #50-46 in the last installment.

These next five low-ranked books are an interesting mix – flagging support for a pair of prior mid-list favorites, several debuts, and one book that’s held steadily in the 40s for three years.

If you have any extra intelligence to add about the probable runs or opinions about the comics therein, please leave a comment! I have read only a handful of issues from all five of these books combined, so most of my knowledge comes from reading about Marvel’s history and some good ol’ fashioned research.

Do want to learn more about the Marvel Omnibus editions that already exist and the issues they cover? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for tracking Marvel’s hugest releases – it features every book, plus release dates, contents, and even breakdowns of $/page and what movies the books were released to support.

And now, onto entries 45 through 41! [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #45 to 41

Uncanny Avengers & A+X – Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading-order on collecting Uncanny Avengers comic books via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2024 with titles scheduled for release through February 2024.

Collecting Uncanny Avengers

Before 2012 the word “Uncanny” had always been a mutants-only adjective at Marvel and The Avengers franchise included relatively few mutant members.

That all changed in the wake of Marvel’s massive Avengers vs. X-Men crossover in 2012. The flagship book of their new Marvel Now line-up was Uncanny Avengers – a greatest hits combination of the most recognizable members of both teams, all striving to maintain Professor Xavier’s message of unity and the Avenger’s mandate of protecting the Earth.

What felt like an uneasy alliance to start began to feel more natural with 2016’s All-New, All-Different Marvel. Maybe that’s because the book felt less like X-Men problems pasted onto the Avengers, or maybe it’s the mix of characters – now also includes of The Inhumans.

The third volume (there was a brief second one after Axis) jettisons the idea that the team must be comprised entirely of major stars like Wolverine and Thor and leans hard into Rogue as the central character. It rotated more Avengers in and out of the mix, plus brought in Deadpool and then Cable (the latter of whom has always been a great partner and foil to Rogue when they occasionally bump up against each other, as they did early in Mike Carey’s X-Men Legacy run).

Now, over half a decade since their debut, Uncanny Avengers feel like their own institution distinct from their pair of parent franchises. Who knows how that feeling will be affected by “No Surrender,” mega all-Avengers crossover in early 2018 that will see all of the books merged down to a single Avengers weekly title.
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Avengers West Coast – Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated Mar 25, 2025! The Avengers West Coast & Force Works definitive collecting guide and reading order for comic books in omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback format. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated March 2025 with titles scheduled for release through December 2025.

The Avengers had the best kind of problem in the early 80s, whether your perspective was from within comic book continuity or behind the scenes: there were just too many darn Avengers!

The Avengers had gradually shifted its focus from Marvel’s major heroes who anchored their own books (like Iron Man and Captain America) to a roster of characters that needed a team book to thrive. That meant plenty of fan favorite characters would be left out during any given run.

The best solution was to follow a trend set by Spider-Man and just recently by Chris Claremont’s X-Men: launch a second Avengers book!

West Coast Avengers launched with Hawkeye as a central focus. He was chief amongst those team-based, fan-favorite characters, hot off of his own limited series. Hawkeye was initially joined by his wife, Mockingbird, Tigra, and West Coast natives Wonder Man and Rhodey Rhodes as Iron Man.

From a story perspective, the central conceit of the book was that America was a big country, and the NYC-based team couldn’t always be responsive to threats across the nation. In practice, it allowed writers like Steve Engelhart, John Byrne, and Roy Thomas to tell big stories that still focused on character history and personalities. Byrne, in particular, used it to dig deeply into the story of Scarlet Witch.

As comics became more entrenched in extreme, violent themes, the relative staid Avengers team was disassembled in favor of an Iron Man lead Force Works. (The in-continuity reason was the team’s standoff with the UN Security Council over happenings in Genosha in the “Blood Ties” crossover in the penultimate issue of the series.)

Despite a flashy launch with a pop-up cover, Force Works never caught fire like the similarly themed X-Force, and was cancelled as part of the line-wide removal of Avengers in 1996 as they headed off to the Heroes Reborn pocket universe in the wake of Onslaught.