Opinion: The ‘DC Versus Marvel’ Omnibii Are One Step Forward And Two Steps Back
by Tony Thornley
This past Tuesday, DC Comics and Marvel Entertainment joined forces for the first time since the death of comics legend George Perez. The two biggest publishers in American comics are bringing decades worth of classic comics back in print, most for the first time in decades. But there are definite downsides to the announcement.
August’s two volumes — DC Versus Marvel Omnibus and the DC/Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus — will collect such legendary comics as Superman Vs the Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel & DC Present Featuring The Uncanny X-Men & New Teen Titans, and Batman/Captain America as well as the massive DC Versus Marvel crossover event. These issues are in high demand from collectors and fans, and seeing them all collected in one place for the first time since the late 1990s and early 2000’s is exciting news.
Essentially these two massive volumes are collecting every crossover between Marvel and DC except JLA/Avengers. They’ll feature stories from legendary creators like Chris Claremont, Denny O’Neil, George Perez, Walt Simonson, Dan Jurgens, JM Dematteis, Mark Bagley, Paul Smith, Kurt Busiek, Karl Kesel, Mike Wieringo, Mark Waid, and many, many more.
I love these cross company crossovers. Not all of them are good, but they’re always a lot of fun, and show the characters in settings and conflicts they’re seldom seen in. They’re always worth looking for when back issue diving. Of course, since they’ve been out of print so long, it’s difficult — if not nearly impossible — to find most of them, especially at a reasonable price. This massive collaboration is a huge win for the preservation of comics history, especially considering the massive body of work this represents.
Where it falls short is in exactly what these editions are. These are stories that are meant to be read, for fans to be able not just find them but to be able to read and enjoy them. In the same way the extremely limited print run of JLA/Avengers put fans and retailers in a tough spot, the same is happening here. The omnibus format, at least in print, is not a reading friendly format, with the massive size and weight making it difficult to read, and the bulky format means it’s hard to even see any portion of the page along the spine.
Unfortunately, this format is also expensive, which means it’s going to limit the number of readers who will be able to pick it up. Though I personally would like to own at least the team-ups volume, most omnibii are typically a minimum of $100 but more likely will be in the $150-200 range. It’s cost prohibitive to many, and that means that this great relic of comics history won’t be read by most.
Now to be fair, neither of the two volumes are officially available for pre-order yet. We don’t know exactly the page count or the price point on either. We can fairly accurately estimate based on what will be included though. Breaking these up into smaller volumes of 100-200 pages — maybe by time period, or the characters starring in them — would make them more affordable and accessible to any reader interested.
Either way, it’s great to see. Let’s just hope this isn’t the only way these important parts of comics history will be coming back to readers.
