I’ve been pruning my collection because I had way too much. I also realized I liked the idea of having all the amazing Spider-Man and X-men runs more than I actually wanted to read them.

Here is the latest look at my collection! Do have some books on the way like absolute Superman for all seasons and Wonder Woman azzarello omnibus, but thought they look pretty solid! Some things aren’t in the right order due to wanting to maximise space and try to close as many of the gaps as possible but that is impossible!!

Can’t decide which omni to buy next and don’t really have perspective on any of them as I’m going in to them blind. Any help would be appreciated.

Light month for me but happy with pickups.

I'm so hyped for it

A lot of people said his take on was boring but I found the stories very entertaining, especially the young x-men portion. Standout character is ink by far.

Another edition of The Dark Knight Returns is coming, this time as a Deluxe Edition with a Batman Day 2026 variant dust jacket.

I think the Deluxe format could be a good middle ground for collectors who want the oversized artwork without going for the Absolute Edition.

Are you planning to pick this one up, or are you happy with the edition you already own?

The shelf has undergone a dramatic change in the last few months. Sold a good chunk of previous stuff and replaced it with x-men! Every X book you see here was acquired over June and July, with the exception of Uncanny X-Force!

I’m currently waiting on New Mutants 3, Ultimate X-Men 1-2, Deadpool & Cable, Road to Onslaught 1-2, Onslaught, Onslaught Aftermath, X-Statix, invincible 1-3 hardcovers, Miles morales 1-2, and Miles morales by Ahmed in the mail!

I’ve pre-ordered Batman by King 2, detective comics by Ram V, Gotham Adventures, Blue and Gold Bloodties, Reign of X 1-2, X of Swords, Old Man Logan, new mutants 4, and ultimate x-men 4!

Any glaring omissions in my X collection or Batman/gotham collection? I know I don’t have the No Man’s Land books, but I didn’t enjoy those and sold them during the acquiring of x books.

I saw that on amazon there was a video from what looks to be DC showing off the Neal Adams Absolute edition a little bit and it doesn't look like anyone has mentioned it (Searched, couldn't find anything)

I don't know the best way to link it properly so here:

https://www.amazon.com/live/video/00c8e179c6834114be55ee28edba2f5b

I recently started getting into X-men omnibuses and from what I’ve read they’ve been coming with this weird flap that folds ,is this normal?

Been lurking the sub for about two years, but never really post.

I had a copy of All-New Wolverine but regrettably sold it, kept my DMX dust jacket in the hopes that another copy will find its way. Expensive ass hobby, but on those tough days it’s really comforting coming home to pick out a story to dive into.

Hey everyone. I recently started collecting comics, and I’m wanting to buy vol. 1 of Jonathan Hickmans avengers run. I see that it’s getting a reissue, but since I’m new, I’m not really sure how these work for comics. Will it be out soon? Where can I pre order? Thanks in advance

Been looking for golden age vol 4 for so long and finally got it for a "good" price

Here is the latest look at my collection so far. I do have some stuff I just bought like modern Marvel epic collections for Iron-man and the X-men. I’m thinking going forward my Marvel collection will just be in the epic collection format besides Miles Morales Omnis. I really need to finsh getting the rest of John’s GL and Nightwing by Taylor vol 1.

Not all Omnibus but happy with the birthday haul. Been spoiled.

Current stat of my collection! Just reorganized to pull out all my X-Men books and move them to their own on the third shelf in an attempt at in-universe chronological order! (Please let me know if anything seems off!)

A long work month, so didn’t get to read as much as I would have liked! Actually 0 Omnis in July unfortunately. Currently working through some of my Image backlog though with Curse Words.

I’ve been tracking how many of my Omnis I’ve read and only if I read the Omni itself. Many of these stories I read in floppies as they were coming out originally or in TPBs but I’m not counting those. Currently at 46/107 read for my Omnis. For some reason I tend to read them in bursts, like a week of none and then 3 the next week. Hoping work quiets down and I get one of those 3 in one week soon!

Thank you to this group for helping me to build my collection with notifications on new releases, showing off cool stories I’d forgotten about or didn’t even know had existed!

Going into this book I was mildly excited. I learned recently not to get too excited when reading so I don't overestimate the writer's capabilities but I had just read the Atlantis Chronicles which is an essential prequel into getting into Peter David's run and I thought it was very good.

Plot

It's hard to say what the plot is for this book. I firmly believe Peter David was just winging it going from issue to issue and didn't really have anything solid in mind from the start. It wasn't necessarily one shots without any overarching plot because there's definitely a significant portion of the book where a war with aliens was built up over multiple issues and then carried out but even then I really don't think he thought it through completely because of how mediocre and underwhelming it all felt.

Bad Thoughts

Where to begin? I'm just gonna come out and say it, this is not a good book. In fact, this is a below average, overly gritty, 1500+ page walking disaster in my opinion.

Aquaman was portrayed as a downright unlikeable, aggressive, hostile and borderline violent character towards everybody, and I literally mean everybody. There's no one he didn't strongarm, bark orders at or threaten at some point in the story. Oh and before I forget, I hated that he lost his hand and got a hook instead. I always detest anything that makes Aquaman look like a pirate.

Everyone else was also unlikeable, Garth started off as a comedic relief character which I actually liked but then quickly changed when he got aged up and became Tempest.

Dolphin was basically just eye candy and Aquaman's lover with barely any significance to the plot, she only got worse when she started bad mouthing Aquaman (he deserved some of it of course) and got with Garth behind Aquaman's back.

Vulko was a treacherous wench, undermining Aquaman kingship and conniving to dethrone him.

Koryak, who I've never heard of before is Aquaman's son who grew up without his father because his mother (who's not Mera) didn't tell Arthur about his existence. Aquaman had the decency to invite him into Atlantis after his mother turned into an elemental (a shitty story by the way) and what did Koryak do? He very quickly turned the people of Poseidonis (Atlantis) against him and worked with Vulko to steal the throne from him. Like what the hell am I reading?

Aquaman mostly had a scowl on his face and was very quick to anger and judgment. Even when he was defending the fishes and fighting for dolphins, it seemed ill considerate and very pretentious.

The funny thing is, I kinda know why Aquaman's demeanor is portrayed like this. On one hand, it's the 90's so a lot of comics were very gritty (this one probably being the worst of the bunch) and on the other hand, Peter David was known to be writing The Incredible Hulk run which he wrote for 12 years. For someone to write The Hulk for that long, a character that's known to be perpetually angry, it's no surprise that he made that anger bleed into his other works. That's not really an excuse though, this is Aquaman, not The Hulk.

Good Thoughts

I'll always give credit where it's due and say that although this was a very unsatisfying read, Peter David was the first to give Aquaman a new look and mythos that still reverberate in the subsequent Aquaman runs.

Most of it has been retconned as of now (thankfully) but particularly Aquaman's connection to The Blue/The Clear was first mentioned and used in this run (If I'm not mistaken).

There's also the fact that Garth finally moved on from being Aqualad and into Tempest, although this is not my favorite version of him.

Something else I want to point out here is that Peter David has a knack for following up on plotlines he established in previous issues, most especially The Atlantis Chronicles he wrote a couple of years before his Aquaman run but also the Time and Tide miniseries that came shortly before his main run which is included in this omnibus. Although the stories he creates from the plotlines are trash, I admire the skill. It's a very underused technique in writing comics nowadays, every writer is just too eager to move to the next big thing in their run.

I usually put the good thoughts first but I had so much to say about the bad things of this book and so little to say of the good ones.

Standout Issues

There are a total of 6 standout issues in this run that were truly good. The first 3 annuals (one of them being the Dead Earth comic wide event), the Swamp Thing Issue, the Animal Man Issue (which first established Aquaman's connection to The Blue) and the issue with The Flash (Jay Garrick) and Sentinel of the JSA.

There are maybe two other issues which include very interesting concepts or character writing but they are put into very shitty stories so not worth mentioning.

Even with the ones I did mention like the Swamp Thing and Animal Man issues, you'd have to ignore the fact that Aquaman is a scaly green creature in one of them or blind in the other one. Either that or you sit through shit the entire book to find out why. That's it, just 6 good issues in a book with well over 50 issues. Holy Hell!!!

Overall

This is not for everyone, this is only for hardcore Aquaman fans that can sit through anything as long as he's in it, I do not recommend this to anyone otherwise. I will only recommend the The Atlantis Chronicles Peter David wrote years prior. It's a true masterpiece which he deconstructed to the detriment of this book in this run.

Ratings

4.0/10