Marvel Omnibus/Oversized Hardcover Discussion Part IV

[ER Prest]

Thanks for posting this because of you I cancelled my amazon order. Ill wait a little longer to get it from CGN who I know will ship it properly.

I just cancelled mine too. I'll just end up getting it from CGN in a month or two with a bunch of other books.

[Awesome!]

Okay so I just want to clear up a couple things regarding this. The guy isn't a power seller so I'm not sure what perks he would be losing with a negative. I don't sell stuff on ebay so I don't even know what perks are available. I don't really want to give him (or anyone for that matter) a negative feedback. The only negative feedback I've ever actually left for someone was when a guy never shipped my item, never responded to emails and I had to get a refund through paypal. When a seller ships an item poorly I usually just get some money back and call it even. This one just kind of pissed me off for some reason. I think it was the douchey "thought I shipped it securely." Come on man, own up to it at least. Anyway, I'm going to ask for the shipping plus $5 since the book I have is now damaged. Comes out to less than the $20 Amazon usually offers for a damaged book.

[DrGregatron]

What price do you have on it? I have like 61 bucks locked on it....i'm thinking of cancelling and ordering from CGN, they have it for like 54/55

I've got it locked at $61. I like CGN, ToW and IST but I don't see an advantage in this particular instance to cancelling my order. They're more careful with their packing than Amazon for sure, but like someone else here said recently, it's often times easier to send back damaged goods to Amazon than the other 3 (and also I'd have fewer compunctions about doing that to a big, faceless corporate juggernaut ). Not that I've ever sent anything back due to damage (any complaints I have about book damage is mostly due to poor manufacturing and not shipping anyway). I've placed orders multiple orders with CGN, ToW and IST in the last 2 months. In fact, IST alerted me this morning that my John Romita Spider-Man Artist Edition is being shipped today. Yeah!

[krisis]

Now that we've done the eBay topic to death over the past day (myself included), here's a new discussion prompt:

What published OHC or Omnibus do you most wish you could go back in time to make a minor tweak the contents of before release?

Maybe it's missing an important supporting issue, has a book in an odd sequence, or left out an alternate cover. Maybe it has an annoying print error. How would you improve it?

I'll save mine until after I see a few of yours, but I bet some of you can guess my top two :)

[Captain Planet]

ToW had a Black Friday coupon so I got my copy on preorder from there for 59.00 including shipping and tax. I briefly thought about going with Amazon because I would get it faster but ToW ships really well and I save a couple of bucks.

[DrGregatron]

On the topic of Fatal Attractions OHC, I wish they had chosen a different cover for that book. That JRJR cover is ugly! And to think, a few years earlier JRJR had been drawing the X-Men in a totally different style. I used to love his art during his run on UXM circa #175 through #200. I'm the guy clamoring for a JRJR omnibus, but what the hell happened??? And don't get me started on his recent stuff (e.g. Avengers, A vs X, ect.).

[Captain Planet]

Now that we've done the eBay topic to death over the past day (myself included), here's a new discussion prompt:

What published OHC or Omnibus do you most wish you could go back in time to make a minor tweak the contents of before release?

Maybe it's missing an important supporting issue, has a book in an odd sequence, or left out an alternate cover. Maybe it has an annoying print error. How would you improve it?

I'll save mine until after I see a few of yours, but I bet some of you can guess my top two :)

Right off the top of my head:

Include X-Men Blinded by the Light in with Supernovas and Re-do DPS. Sewn binding with a reasonable price. Personally, I'd also take omnis like Simonson's Thor and turn them into 3 sewn OHCs.

I'm sure I can think of other bigger corrections with other collections but those just popped up in my mind first.

[krisis]

On the topic of Fatal Attractions OHC, I wish they had chosen a different cover for that book. That JRJR cover is ugly! And to think, a few years earlier JRJR had been drawing the X-Men in a totally different style. I used to love his art during his run on UXM circa #175 through #200. I'm the guy clamoring for a JRJR omnibus, but what the hell happened??? And don't get me started on his recent stuff (e.g. Avengers, A vs X, ect.).

I think they are insane for not going with the cover of X-Men #25, which is one of the best of all time and has Magneto and Wolverine front and center. How can you go wrong? They could have letterboxed it on the front like they did with Claremont/Lee, or gone with a partially black spine except for Wolverine's torn up face at the bottom. Or, even shifted the cover left so that the edge of the book started at the edge of the hologram overlay, which would put Wolverine's face and Rogue on the cover. UXM #298 is also a great cover, but Bishop and Gambit are the only real A-listers on it.

I guess they want to pull in the older fans by showing it's JRJR? I've always hated the cover of #300.



I remember when the issues first came out I very carefully pried the hologram off of my X-Factor #92 because I wanted to see the art beneath, and then instantly regretted it and asked my mother if she would buy me another one. But, really, what a silly cover enhancement - pasting an unrelated hologram on top of some awesome X-Men artwork.

Also, how effing terrible is the graphic design on that cover? How many different fonts are they using exactly? Look at all the different capital letter As. It's embarrassing.

[LordJulius]

Now that we've done the eBay topic to death over the past day

Amen.

What published OHC or Omnibus do you most wish you could go back in time to make a minor tweak the contents of before release?

Maybe it's missing an important supporting issue, has a book in an odd sequence, or left out an alternate cover. Maybe it has an annoying print error. How would you improve it?

- AoA: The issues that tell us about what happened to the non-mutant heroes (I heard there are some, but I've never read them nor do I know what actually DID happen)

- Bru Cap 1 and 2: Waste of space, paper and money to put #25 in both of them (especially concerning Vol. 2, which had an extraordinarily low page count anyway). Who'd buy Vol. 2 "The Death of Cap" without getting Vol. 1 first, which gives us the background for his death?

- Not content, but equally important: Use thinner paper on Silver Age ASM 1 - though it looks impressive on the shelf, reading it is a bit of a chore.

[DrGregatron]

Now that we've done the eBay topic to death over the past day (myself included), here's a new discussion prompt:

What published OHC or Omnibus do you most wish you could go back in time to make a minor tweak the contents of before release?
Maybe it's missing an important supporting issue, has a book in an odd sequence, or left out an alternate cover. Maybe it has an annoying print error. How would you improve it?

I'll save mine until after I see a few of yours, but I bet some of you can guess my top two :)

I'd want them to have printed all the X-Men OHCs with a sewn-binding (sorry, not really content). They started doing this with Masterworks and Omnibus well before OHCs, and they're a lot more consistent about doing it with MMW and Omnibus books. They know that OHCs are collectible, too, so why skimp on them? If I loved glued-bindings I'd buy me some trade paperbacks. Dark Phoenix OHC is only one of the offenders on this list! If it had a nice sewn binding, maybe there would have been less of a backlash against it.

If we're talking soley content, they could have increased the readability of X-Necrosha by re-ordering the issues.

[regomar]

Now that we've done the eBay topic to death over the past day (myself included), here's a new discussion prompt:

What published OHC or Omnibus do you most wish you could go back in time to make a minor tweak the contents of before release?

Maybe it's missing an important supporting issue, has a book in an odd sequence, or left out an alternate cover. Maybe it has an annoying print error. How would you improve it?

I'll save mine until after I see a few of yours, but I bet some of you can guess my top two :)

Necrosha.

I'd put the freaking thing in ORDER.

[DrGregatron]

I think they are insane for not going with the cover of X-Men #25, which is one of the best of all time and has Magneto and Wolverine front and center. How can you go wrong? They could have letterboxed it on the front like they did with Claremont/Lee, or gone with a partially black spine except for Wolverine's torn up face at the bottom. Or, even shifted the cover left so that the edge of the book started at the edge of the hologram overlay, which would put Wolverine's face and Rogue on the cover. UXM #298 is also a great cover, but Bishop and Gambit are the only real A-listers on it.

I guess they want to pull in the older fans by showing it's JRJR? I've always hated the cover of #300.

Agreed that cover art would be 10x better! Don't know if 30-something is "older", but the actual cover art is less likely to draw in this fan of 80's JRJR and more likely to cause dry heaves .

I remember when the issues first came out I very carefully pried the hologram off of my X-Factor #92 because I wanted to see the art beneath, and then instantly regretted it and asked my mother if she would buy me another one. But, really, what a silly cover enhancement - pasting an unrelated hologram on top of some awesome X-Men artwork.

Also, how effing terrible is the graphic design on that cover? How many different fonts are they using exactly? Look at all the different capital letter As. It's embarrassing.

You're forgetting it was the early 90's and just the beginning of computer publishing software. Somebody must have got himself a new computer at Marvel and went nuts, leaving all common sense behind.

[CrazyOldHermit]

Its based purely from the fact that Garth's run is the most famous Punisher run of the lot. While I realise that doesn't guarantee his run will be the first Punisher MAX run in Omnibus form, especially as it would need to be collected in two volumes, unlike Aarons run, I am going to assume that it shortens the odds. I do realise there are a number of examples where this hasn't been the case. Having said that perhaps the chances of a Punisher MAX Omnibus by anyone any time soon could be debatable if its dependant on a film release.

Not only is Ennis' run the most famous, its also the predecessor to Aaron's run. If they omni'd Ennis' MAX run and Aaron's run it would, combined with the first Ennis omni, form a complete four volume series much the same way Bendis and Brubaker's DD formed a four volume run. And they didn't release Brubaker's run until Bendis' was over.

Mapping the Ennis books is easy. A 60 issue series means two 30 issue omnis, plus the Born mini and the three one-shots. I'd put those in order of release: Born at the beginning of Volume 1, The End in between issues 6 and 7, The Cell in between 18 and 19 and The Tyger at the beginning of Volume 2. The result would be 880 pages for Volume 1 and 739 pages for Volume 2, plus extras.

It doesn't make much sense to me to release Aaron's run before Ennis'. Aaron's run is newer, the HCs and trades still have life in them whereas the Ennis trades have been around forever and half of the HCs are OOP. And as I said before, Aaron's run is a sequel to Ennis'. Ennis' run is more famous, it has proven value, it continues from a previous omni and would lead into the next and Ennis himself is a big name. Why would Aaron's run be released first?

All that being said, if Aaron's run was solicited I wouldn't exactly be upset. I want both of these runs in omnis, it doesn't really matter to me which one gets omni'd first.

[Captain Planet]

I'd want them to have printed all the X-Men OHCs with a sewn-binding (sorry, not really content). They started doing this with Masterworks and Omnibus well before OHCs, and they're a lot more consistent about doing it with MMW and Omnibus books. They know that OHCs are collectible, too, so why skimp on them? If I loved glued-bindings I'd buy me some trade paperbacks. Dark Phoenix OHC is only one of the offenders on this list! If it had a nice sewn buying, maybe there would have been less of a backlash against it.

If we're talking soley content, they could have increased the readability of X-Necrosha by re-ordering the issues.

This with Realm of Kings, Siege and War of Kings. Would it have been so hard to put them in order?

On topic of JRJR cover for FA. I don't get it. Its a terrible cover. I can only assume that his art is still a bigger book mover. I don't understand why but people love his work.

[krisis]

If we're talking soley content, they could have increased the readability of X-Necrosha by re-ordering the issues.

X-Necrosha should have also included the Dazzler one-shot, which got orphaned as a result. Maybe the first collection of the new X-Treme X-Men will finally pick it up.

I would include Blood Ties in Fatal Attractions, where it rightfully belongs. Screw the Avengers fans who wouldn't want to shell out for the huge book - they could always release a TPB later.

I would include the four missing issues in the AOA Omni, or at least release the AOA companion at the same time as the AOA omni.

I would send Fall of the Mutants back to press to fix the off-center deboss and printing errors on the dust jacket and summary.

I would have never released the pointless X-Men: Lifedeath MPC (collecting #186, #198, #205 and #214), instead making it a pre-Mutant Massacre Omni of #177-209 (+ Annuals & GLMK), which would allow the X-Men MMWs to end with Vol. 9, leaving us with two forthcoming UXM Omnis. And, going back much further in time, I would have extended Mutant Massacre to include UXM 214-219 to fix the awkward trade gap (but, I don't think they really knew their reprint strategy in full at that time).

Uncanny X-Men #544 should have been printed in Schism, not in (or in addition to) Fear Itself.

Generally, I would endeavor to orphan fewer standalone annuals from 90s and 00s collections, which as a result are probably never going to be collected.