Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Omnibus Vol. 1

Doctor Strange was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963 as a back-up strip in Strange Tales, and Ditko used the format to draw dimensions no comic had attempted before. Ditko's psychedelic dimensions predate the counterculture that later claimed them, and they are still the visual reference for every Doctor Strange adaptation. The Eternity sequence in particular is one of the most reproduced images in comics history. This is the run that invented Marvel's entire magical cosmology.

The second Doctor Strange omnibus covers the character's first solo title, launched in 1968 after Strange Tales split into two books. This is where Strange gets an origin issue — #169 is still the definitive telling — and where Marvel tried to make him a costumed superhero, which failed commercially and was reversed. Marvel Feature #1 is also here: the first Defenders story, which gave the character somewhere to belong for the next decade.

This omnibus collects the pivotal Steve Englehart and Roger Stern era of Doctor Strange, one of the most beloved runs in the character's history. Englehart's mid-1970s work brought genuine philosophical ambition to Strange — incorporating elements of Eastern mysticism, real-world occult traditions, and moral complexity into stories that made the Sorcerer Supreme feel genuinely wise and consequential. Roger Stern followed with sharp, character-driven arcs and legendary collaborations with artists including Marshall Rogers and Frank Miller on covers. This era produced some of the most visually and intellectually ambitious Doctor Strange comics ever published, setting the character's tone for the next two decades.

Jed MacKay's Doctor Strange run opens by killing him: the Sorcerer Supreme is murdered in the first issue and has to solve his own death. Strange (2022) is the best part: Clea Strange takes the title and the job, and MacKay writes her as someone ruling by force where her husband ruled by knowledge. The later Doctor Strange run then reunites them, and the marriage is written as a genuine partnership between two very different kinds of magician.

Volume 2 of the Sorcerer Supreme omnibus continues the long-running 1988–1996 series through some of its most turbulent and creatively ambitious chapters. Roy Thomas and Jean-Marc Lofficier deepen the cosmological mythology of Strange's world — the Vishanti, the Vishanti Wars, the politics of magical dimensions — while Strange himself faces threats that test both his power and his moral convictions. The crossover era of early 1990s Marvel begins to impinge on the series here, but the creative team maintains the book's distinctive identity. For collectors building the complete Sorcerer Supreme omnibus set, Volume 2 is the bridge between the Gillis foundations and the series' later evolution.

Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme ran through the nineties and this second omnibus covers its later years, when the book was at the centre of Marvel's horror line. The Midnight Sons era put Strange in charge of Marvel's supernatural characters — Ghost Rider, Blade, Morbius — and this volume covers that whole experiment. What Is It That Disturbs You, Stephen? is the standout: a Marvel graphic novel by Marc Nadel that reads closer to prose horror than to a comic.

The other Claremont. Everyone knows the sixteen years on Uncanny X-Men; this collects what he was writing everywhere else across four decades, including the first Captain Britain series and a stretch of Doctor Strange. It is the volume that shows the range behind the reputation.

King Conan takes the character forty years forward: Conan on the throne of Aquilonia, older, heavier and with a son to worry about, which is a different story from the one he made his name in. Collects the first run of King Conan, written by Roy Thomas, Doug Moench and Alan Zelenetz with art by John Buscema and Marc Silvestri.

King Conan takes the character forty years forward: Conan on the throne of Aquilonia, older, heavier and with a son to worry about, which is a different story from the one he made his name in. Collects the first run of King Conan, written by Roy Thomas, Doug Moench and Alan Zelenetz with art by John Buscema and Marc Silvestri.

The Savage Sword of Conan was a black and white magazine, which meant no Comics Code, no colour and no page limits. It is where the best Conan comics were published. Collects the fifth run of The Savage Sword of Conan in black and white, with art by John Buscema and Ernie Colon.

The Savage Sword of Conan was a black and white magazine, which meant no Comics Code, no colour and no page limits. It is where the best Conan comics were published. Collects the fifth run of The Savage Sword of Conan in black and white, with art by John Buscema and Ernie Colon.

Gary Kwapisz takes over as the main artist and gives the magazine a rougher, dirtier Hyborian Age than Buscema's. Collects the eighth run of The Savage Sword of Conan, written by Roy Thomas and Michael Fleisher with art by Gary Kwapisz, Ernie Chan and John Buscema.

Gary Kwapisz takes over as the main artist and gives the magazine a rougher, dirtier Hyborian Age than Buscema's. Collects the eighth run of The Savage Sword of Conan, written by Roy Thomas and Michael Fleisher with art by Gary Kwapisz, Ernie Chan and John Buscema.

Robert E. Howard's other great creation is a puritan swordsman who walks the world punishing evil because he believes God told him to, and he is far stranger company than Conan. Collects the first run of Marvel's Solomon Kane comics, adapted by Roy Thomas and Don Glut from Robert E. Howard with art by David Wenzel and Howard Chaykin.

Robert E. Howard's other great creation is a puritan swordsman who walks the world punishing evil because he believes God told him to, and he is far stranger company than Conan. Collects the first run of Marvel's Solomon Kane comics, adapted by Roy Thomas and Don Glut from Robert E. Howard with art by David Wenzel and Howard Chaykin.