Those of you who read my posts my be surprised to see me writing about this volume, which shipped today. I have had many favorite characters over the years. I have frequently identified the Incredible Hulk as my "first favorite" character, but I couldn't possibly ever list them all, at least not in order. I don't think I have ever named my second (in sequence, not ranking), but it was Captain America. I started collecting that particular title just after Jack Kirby's mid-'70s tenure and, when I collected only three titles via subscription for three years, Captain America was one of them. I missed John Byrne's tenure on X-Men in it's entirety as well as the beginning of his Fantastic Four run, but I was right there, before and after, for the Captain America he did with Roger Stern. Shortly after that, J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck took over, and Captain America became not only my favorite character but my favorite series.
But nothing lasts forever, and eventually Jim Shooter pulled Mike Zeck off the title to illustrate his own pet project (at least that's the way I saw it at the time). DeMatteis left the series as well, and I settled hopefully in to await their return. but that never happened. I wanted to like my (former) favorite title after that, but I just couldn't. Mark Gruenwald took over the writing with #307 and I eventually came to find the title unreadable... not virtually unreadable, but unreadable (as evidenced by the fact I still have ten or so issues I bought but just couldn't bring myself to read). I eventually dropped it, but I still cared (deeply) about the Marvel Universe back in those days, and I still checked in from time-to-time just to keep apprised of current events. For example, of the issues collected in this volume, I bought (and read) #332-333, 341 and 350. after that I bought very few issues until Mark Waid and Steve Garney took over with #444.
So why am I taking another look at this run of issues now? Well, I have (long since) become disillusioned with today's Marvel Universe and long for the days of yore when I actually enjoyed reading Marvel Comics. Comics will never be what they once were, but these omnibus editions give one the opportunity to revisit past eras he might have missed. Mark Gruenwald was a bigger fan of Captain America than I ever was, plus he knew more about the Marvel Universe than I do today. I have recently come to re-evaluate and reassess the comics of my youth, and I thought Mark Gruenwald's Captain America would be a good place to continue. I mean, objectively speaking, how bad can it be really?
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This should be interesting. I remember thinking at the time Gruenwald was writing Captain America that the comics weren't very good. But I don't remember why. So this will be a re-education.
Also, I might get this one myself, because it's collects Captain America #307-350 comprehensively. If I get this, I can stop buying Masterworks pretty soon. MMW Cap Vol. 16, which came out in April, goes up to #270. So, maybe three more Masterworks until we hit #306? Then the Omnibus takes me to #350, which is about four masterworks, faster and cheaper. Gruenwald continued to write Cap until issue #443, with Mark Waid and Ron Garney taking over with #444 and the title canceled with #454. So if I keep buying the Gruenwald Omnibuses, then I'll only need those last 11 issues (which would constitute one Masterwork) to have the whole run in HC -- and a lot faster and cheaper than buying the individual masterworks.
I"m thinking very, very hard about doing this -- I've already got the last 100 issues or so of Incredible Hulk in Omnibus form, thanks to the Hulk by Peter David Omnibuses, and am looking foward to when the Masterworks catch up and I can scratch that off my list. Maybe I can do the same with Cap. I'm thinking very, very hard about doing it.
I don't plan to do an issue-by-issue analysis of this one, but so far I've read #307-310. I have no new insights re-reading the issues which led to me deciding to drop the title back in '86 (or whenever it was). So far it's been pretty slow going. But I, too, have made the same "three Masterworks to go" mental calculation you did (and don't think that wasn't a factor in my purchase of the volume). So far I have been able to avoid large chunks of Masterworks by buying John Byrne's FF, Jack Kirby's Captain America, Roger Stern's Spider-Man and Walt Simonson's Thor (among others). I have already begun to pick up new volumes of MMW Iron Man on the other side of the Michelinie/Layton omnibus, and the skipped numbering doesn't really affect me because I buy the "D.M. variant" trade dress.
Speaking of the Waid/Garney run, there is already an omnibus collecting #444-454 as well as #1-23 of the 1998 "Heroes Return" series (plus some other stuff, such as the 12-issue Sentinel of Liberty series), and anther omnibus collecting the Dan Jurgens run (#24-50) after that, so you can scratch the single post-Gruenwald MMW off your "to buy" list as well.
Incidentally, come this November, Fantastic Four Omnibus v5 will allow you to liquidate four volumes (or 3½ inches) of MMW FF from your shelf (volumes 12-15). That's because MMW FF v12 reprints #117-128, but FF OMNI v4 goes only as far as #125. FF OMNI v5 reprints #126-163 (+), which takes it up to the beginning of MMW FF v16 exactly. (That doesn't always happen.)
Speaking of Hulk, the John Byrne stuff had already been reprinted in omnibus format, so once you get to that point, the only thing you'll be missing is #321-330, and that is available in EPIC format. For my own part, I have already decided to stop buying MMW Hulk with the most recent volume, 18. That's because I already have the rest of Bill Mantlo's run in three EPIC volumes ("Pardoned," "Regression" and "Crossroads"). Besides, MMW Hulk v18 brought to saga up to a good stopping point (#279), and I'm not too big a fan of the pre-Byrne "intelligent Hulk" era. EPIC format is fine for that. YMMV.
Looking forward to FF Vol 5 because, believe it or not, I don't have all those MMWs!
Because I am an idiot, when the MMWs hit the end of the Silver Age I thought, "I always wanted all the Silver Age books in hardcover, and now I have them, so I can quit." It's what you once termed "a spasm of frugality" or similar. Then a couple of years later I thought, "Why don't I just get the entire runs of the Silver Age books in hardcover? That would make more sense than arbitrarily stopping at 1970." But by then I'd missed several books in each title. And I've been slowly omnibizing to the point where I become comprehensive again. I think FF Vol. 5 will take me there. I've caught up with Thor and Daredevil, maybe Avengers too, and am close on Spider-Man. Incredible Hulk, though, has been awful slow about omnibizing from the beginning.
Fantastic Four hardcovers are elegant in their simplicity:
FF OMNI v1-5 = #1-163
MMW FF v16-20 = #164-231
John Byrne FF OMNI v1-2= #232-295
Sadly, I was already into the Byrne era on MMWs before I realized I could get the omnibus. Now I'm commited. Collecting comics is hard!
Ooh, that's too bad, because the JB FF omnis also include Marvel Two-in-One #50, Marvel Team-Up #61-62, What If? #36 and "The Last Galactus Story" from Epic Illustrated, plus assorted crossovers, annuals and specials.
"Now you're just gettin' nasty." -- Indiana Jones
Say, when you replace a bunch of MMWs with an omnibus, do you make a copy of the forewords in the MMWs? Or do you just bid them adieu? Some of them (those not written by Stan Lee) often have interesting information.
That's an interesting point. So far, I have forfeited any unique introduction the MMWs may have had. Back when I had ready access to a photocopier I would certainly have made copies. In many cases, if the MMWs were published first, the intros often carry over into the OMNI. I can't think of any intros I have specifically lost when converting from MMW to OMNI, but that doesn't mean there haven't been any.