Scott Lobdell Archives

Omnibus on Shelf We’ve reached the halfway point of the 2016 Secret Ballot for Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibus by Tigereyes. I covered #35-31 in the last installment.

Here’s your early warning: this batch of books includes not one but three X-Men titles, and boy do I have opinions about those! Also, all five of these books placed lower in previous years.

I’ve failed to say this previously, but if you have any extra intelligence to add about the probable runs or opinions about the comics therein, please leave a comment! Even when ti comes to X-Men, I don’t know (or remember!) everything about these books – and you might.

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.

Now that you’ve been adequately warned, let’s x-amine what I have to say about #30 through 26! [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #30 to 26

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and trade reading order for the 1990s run of X-Men Vol. 2 (1991) comic books in omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections – including X-Cutioner’s Song, Fatal Attractions, Phalanx Covenant, Age of Apocalypse, Onslaught, and more! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2024 with titles scheduled for release through June 2025.

Adjectiveless X-Men: X-Men Vol. 2 (1991) #1 – 113 (1991 – 2001)

After almost thirty years with Uncanny X-Men as the core book in the X-Universe, Marvel launched a second, adjectiveless flagship X-Men book in 1991.

X-Men Vol. 2 was the biggest possible of comic blockbusters at its launch – it’s first issue remains the highest-selling comic of all time over 25 years after its release!

It featured the hottest team in comics battling their most-iconic villain in a gut-wrenchingly awesome story penned by their most-celebrated scribe (Chris Claremont) and with all-new looks from the hottest artist in the industry (Jim Lee). The regular roster was even stacked with fan favorites – Cyclops, Wolverine, Cyclops, Gambit, Rogue, and Psylocke!

Yet, things were unraveling behind the scenes almost before the book was underway. Claremont departed after issue #3, unhappy with Marvel’s increasing tendency to give their superstar artists like Lee the leeway while rushing writers (a subsequent brief stint by John Byrne ended similarly).

Lee lasted for less than a dozen issues before leaving to become a founder of Image Comics.

Despite the break-up of that initial creative team team, this volume remained a who’s who of X-creators – Fabian Nicieza scripted nearly half of this volume, followed by brief writing runs by Terry Kavanagh, Joe Casey, and Mark Waid.

The book also sustained a strong stable of artists, with Andy Kubert helping to define the look of the early-90s era of X for a third of this run. Claremont would later return for a run, and Alan Davis both wrote and penciled an arc.

This period is exemplified by more then 20 different events, direct crossovers, or runs with informal crossovers with Uncanny X-Men (1963) it endured in its first 100 issues. The team’s A-list roster held up for almost two years before the crossovers muddied the lines between this and the flagship Uncanny X-Men, robbing the book of definition and the Rogue and Gambit drama that drove its earliest issues. [Read more…] about X-Men Vol. 2 in the 90s – Definitive Collecting Guide to X-Men (1991) #1-113