Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Omnibus Vol. 2

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.

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.

Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme launched in 1988 and gave the character his longest-running solo title, ninety issues across a decade. Peter Gillis and Roy Thomas rebuild the magical side of the Marvel Universe from scratch here, with Strange having lost most of his power and having to earn it back. It is the run that established the modern rules of Marvel magic — the Vishanti, the balance of realms — that every later writer has worked within.

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.

Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin bring Luke Skywalker’s first adventure to comics in Marvel’s original adaptation of A New Hope. Luke, Leia, Han Solo and their allies confront Darth Vader and the Death Star, with scenes that never reached the screen. This 50th anniversary Deluxe Edition collects the six-part adaptation in an oversize hardcover.

Justice League of America: The Bronze Age, collected as a pack of 4 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. Justice League of America: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1 opens a more textured era for the League, still heroic and direct but increasingly shaped by shifting casts, social unease and a DC universe learning to carry more continuity. Gardner Fox, Dennis O'Neil, Len Wein, Mike Friedrich and Dick Dillin bridge classic team adventure with a richer 1970s mood. The second Bronze Age Justice League omnibus covers the early 1970s, when the team left their secret New England cave for a satellite in orbit and the stories went cosmic. This is where the JLA/JSA team-ups settle into their yearly rhythm and the multiverse becomes a working part of DC's storytelling rather than an occasional gimmick. It is also the era that established the League as DC's legends rather than just its biggest team. The third Bronze Age omnibus covers the late seventies, when Gerry Conway took over the Justice League and gave it the longest continuous run of its classic era. Conway wrote the League for years and used the length: long-running subplots, a rotating roster and the arrival of Zatanna as a permanent member. The JLA/JSA crossovers in this stretch are also the most ambitious of the run, bringing in the Legion of Super-Heroes and the New Gods across multiple Earths. The fourth Bronze Age omnibus takes the Justice League into the early eighties, the last years before Crisis on Infinite Earths changed everything. The Leaf Candy mini comic is a genuine curiosity, a promotional giveaway that has never been collected anywhere else. The main run includes the New Gods crossover in #183-185, which is Gerry Conway writing Darkseid at full scale, and the Firestorm and Titans tie-ins that show DC's line starting to interconnect.

The third Amazing Spider-Man omnibus covers the transition from Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. to Gerry Conway, and the two issues that ended the Silver Age of the character. Issues #121-122 are here: the Green Goblin, Gwen Stacy and the George Washington Bridge. Nothing in superhero comics had done that before, and the industry treats it as the moment the genre stopped guaranteeing happy endings. The volume also contains the six-armed Spider-Man arc and the first appearances of Morbius and the Punisher.

Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 5 continues Peter Parker's Bronze Age stretch after the first Clone Saga, with Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas and Ross Andru shaping a Spider-Man who feels older, more socially rooted and increasingly defined by relationships. Mary Jane, Aunt May, the Daily Bugle and a changing Marvel New York give the run its texture.

The Hidden Years was John Byrne's attempt to fill the gap in X-Men history: the years between issue #66 in 1970 and Giant-Size X-Men in 1975, when the original title ran reprints and the team officially did nothing. Byrne writes and draws it in deliberate period style, using the original five X-Men and continuity he had to reverse-engineer from scattered guest appearances. It is a genuine curiosity: a modern comic pretending to be a lost one, made by someone who knew the era well enough to make the seams invisible.

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.

The second Daredevil omnibus covers the late sixties and early seventies, when Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway took over and the book moved Matt Murdock to San Francisco. This is the run where the Black Widow becomes a co-lead — the book was retitled Daredevil and the Black Widow for part of it — and where the character stops being a Spider-Man variant. The Iron Man crossover is also the first appearance of the Zodiac cartel, which Marvel used for decades afterwards.

The second Incredible Hulk omnibus covers Peter David's most celebrated stretch, when the Hulk's personalities merged and the book became a study of an integrated mind under pressure. The Pantheon arrives, Doc Samson integrates grey, green and Banner into one person, and issue #400 pays off the Leader's long campaign. David spends the rest of the volume testing whether the merger holds against the Abomination, the U-Foes and Freedom Force. It is the run's centre of gravity.