Daredevil by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 1

Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky Omnibus Vol. 1 begins with Matt Murdock shattered after a violent mistake in Hell's Kitchen. Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto rebuild Daredevil through guilt, faith, law and Wilson Fisk's New York, while Elektra moves closer to the centre of the mythos.

Ann Nocenti wrote Daredevil for four years in the late eighties with John Romita Jr., and used a street-level superhero book to write about politics, ecology and abuse. Nocenti created Typhoid Mary, who remains the most dangerous thing in Matt Murdock's life, and issue #254 is her debut. The run also contains Romita Jr.'s Inferno crossover chapters, drawn as full horror. It is the most politically explicit run Marvel published in the decade and it has aged remarkably well.

Ed Brubaker took over Daredevil directly from Bendis, with Matt Murdock already in prison and his identity already public — a starting position most writers would have reset. Brubaker keeps every problem he inherited and adds more: the prison arc, the move to Europe, and the return of a character Matt had every reason to believe was dead. It is the closest Marvel has come to publishing a straight crime serial, and Lark's art is deliberately unglamorous throughout.

The second Chip Zdarsky omnibus covers the end of his Daredevil run and Devil's Reign, the event in which Wilson Fisk uses the mayor's office to outlaw superheroes. Zdarsky's long game pays off here: Elektra takes over as Daredevil and is better at it, Matt runs a criminal fraternity from inside prison, and Devil's Reign turns a personal grudge into city-wide policy. Woman Without Fear is the best Elektra material in decades, and it is essential to the main run rather than a spin-off.

Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev spent five years on Daredevil writing it as a crime series where the superhero elements were almost incidental. The run's defining move is in #32: a tabloid prints Matt Murdock's name and he cannot deny it, so he sues, and the book spends years on the legal and personal fallout instead of undoing it. Maleev's photorealistic Hell's Kitchen set the visual template for every street-level Marvel book since, including the television adaptation.

Frank Miller returned to Daredevil twice after his original run, and this companion volume gathers that later work with the industry's best artists. Born Again is widely considered the best Daredevil story ever published and one of the best superhero comics of the eighties: David Mazzucchelli draws it, the Kingpin takes everything, and the recovery is slower and more religious than anything Marvel was publishing. It is the direct source for the Netflix series' third season.

The era that transformed Daredevil from a minor title to one of Marvel's most respected comics. Frank Miller creates Elektra, reinvents the Kingpin, introduces the Hand Ninjas and writes Born Again: considered one of the 10 best superhero comics ever written. Miller also draws the seminal story — his art on Daredevil is raw, urban and unlike anything else in 1980s Marvel. Direct basis for the Netflix series and the Daredevil reboot.

Daredevil by Ed Brubaker Omnibus Vol. 2 is the consequence volume: Lady Bullseye, the Hand, Kingpin fallout and Matt's gradual slide toward choices that feel less heroic and more desperate. It closes the Bendis-Brubaker era with the discipline of a crime novel, where every decision comes due. The value is the second half of Brubaker's noir machinery: Matt Murdock under pressure from crime, law, prison fallout and enemies who understand his weak points.

Mark Waid wrote The Flash for eight years and is the writer who decided Wally West should stop being Barry Allen's replacement and start being better than him. The Return of Barry Allen is here, and it is the best Flash story ever published: Barry comes back, he is wrong, and working out why is the point. Waid also invents the Speed Force in this stretch, which reorganised the entire franchise and is now the basis of the television series.

The Flash by Mark Waid, collected complete as a pack of 3 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. Mark Waid's first Flash omnibus is where Wally West stops feeling like the replacement and starts becoming the heart of the legacy. The speed is bright and spectacular, but the real story is confidence, family, memory and the impossible shadow of Barry Allen. This is the start of the modern Wally West shelf: warm, fast, emotional and built around the idea that inheriting a symbol is only the beginning. Wally West is no longer just the kid who inherited Barry Allen's speed. In Mark Waid's second Flash omnibus, he has to earn the name, understand the legacy and discover what kind of hero he can become when the whole DC universe still measures him against the past. This volume keeps the heart of Waid's run intact: speed, family, doubt, momentum and the slow transformation of Wally into the Flash on his own terms. Mark Waid's third Flash omnibus keeps Wally West moving through the part of the run where legacy becomes pressure, not just inspiration. The speed is still there, but the real pull is emotional: Wally balancing love, responsibility, fear and the impossible standard of being the Flash. It is a continuation for readers who want the DC hero behind the lightning, not just the lightning itself.

Closing of the rotating phase before the start of Dan Slott's Big Time. The writers close their individual arcs and prepare the ground for the next phase: Horizon Labs, Spider-Island and the preparation of Superior Spider-Man. The end of Marvel's most ambitious editorial experiment with the character in decades.

Brand New Day was Marvel's post-One More Day reset: Peter Parker single again, three issues a month, and a rotating team of writers running the book like a writers' room. Whatever you think of how the status quo was reached, the execution was strong: new villains that stuck (Mister Negative, Anti-Venom, Screwball), a genuine mystery in the Menace subplot, and a Spider-Man written as a broke twenty-something again. Volume 2 is where the new rogues start paying off.

Wally West is no longer just the kid who inherited Barry Allen's speed. In Mark Waid's second Flash omnibus, he has to earn the name, understand the legacy and discover what kind of hero he can become when the whole DC universe still measures him against the past. This volume keeps the heart of Waid's run intact: speed, family, doubt, momentum and the slow transformation of Wally into the Flash on his own terms.

The final volume of the reinvigorating "Brand New Day" era sets Spidey against a gauntlet of his deadliest foes! The violent tension between Spidey and Norman Osborn builds to a boil! Electro becomes the voice of the people! When one of Peter Parker's closest friends is on the brink of ruin, all clues point to the sinister Sandman!

Mark Waid and Chris Samnee took Daredevil out of noir deliberately: bright colours, San Francisco sunlight, and a Matt Murdock who had decided to be happy on purpose. The premise is that Matt is performing happiness as a coping strategy and the book knows it, which gives the brightness an undertow. Samnee's art won awards for good reason, and the way the pair render Matt's radar sense — as a world of shapes rather than darkness — is the best solution anyone has found to drawing a blind protagonist.

One of the X-Men's - and the entire Marvel Universe's - greatest threats begins to emerge and rear its head, in this prelude to the monumental and iconic Onslaught Saga! Onslaught is coming! But first the X-Men must survive his herald: the punishing and powerful Post! Archangel and Wolverine join Doctor Strange on a quest for a mystical cure to Psylocke’s grievous, Sabretooth-inflicted injuries — but Warren too has wounds, both physical and psychological.