Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo Omnibus

John Byrne's Fantastic Four run is the second-greatest creative achievement in the character's history after Lee and Kirby's founding run — a systematic reinvention of the team that returned to their core dynamics while introducing major concepts including She-Hulk's substitution for Thing, the death and rebirth of Galactus, the introduction of Frankie Raye as Nova, and the extended Reed Richards trial before the Shi'ar Imperial Guard that is one of the most conceptually ambitious single storylines in 1980s Marvel.

The second Hickman omnibus completes his Fantastic Four run, resolving the Council of Reeds, the Kree, the Inhumans and the future Franklin Richards was always going to become. Issue #605 is the standout: a single issue following Reed and his father across the whole span of their lives, which is the quietest thing in the run and the best. Hickman ties off every thread he planted, which almost no long-form superhero run manages, and #611 is a genuine ending rather than a handoff.

Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four is a story about fathers, sons and the future, built on a simple idea: Reed Richards decides to solve everything. Solve Everything opens with Reed meeting hundreds of alternate versions of himself who have already succeeded, and asking why he has not. The run then earns its emotional weight by killing a founding member and letting the consequences stand. This is Hickman's first major Marvel work and it leads straight to Secret Wars.

Ultimate Fantastic Four rebuilt the team for the Ultimate line: four students at a government think tank rather than four adults in a rocket. Making them nineteen changes everything: Reed is a prodigy nobody supervises, and the accident is his fault in a way the original never was. The Ultimate Marvel Zombies storyline starts in this volume, which is where that entire franchise came from, and the N-Zone arc is Warren Ellis writing hard science fiction.

The first Fantastic Four omnibus collects the genesis of the Marvel Universe — Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's creation of the concept that would define American superhero comics for six decades. The Fantastic Four #1 through the early issues introduced not just four characters but the entire conceptual framework of the Marvel approach: fallible heroes with genuine relationships, science fiction adventure grounded in human drama, and a shared universe that was being invented issue by issue. These are the issues that changed everything.

Fantastic Four #1 started the Marvel Universe in 1961, and the Lee and Kirby run that followed invented most of what the company still sells. This is the stretch where the run becomes extraordinary: the Inhumans, the Negative Zone, Doctor Doom's origin in Annual #2 and the arrival of Galactus and the Silver Surfer in #48-50 — the single most influential three issues Marvel published in the sixties. Everything cosmic in the Marvel Universe starts here.

Dan Slott's Fantastic Four run began in 2018 and immediately engaged with the team's foundational mythology in ambitious ways — exploring the nature of Richards family intelligence across generations, the Griever's attempt to destroy all that the FF have created, and the team's return to active duty after a period of absence.

Marv Wolfman's Fantastic Four run represents the final pre-Byrne era — the creative tenure immediately before John Byrne's major reinvention of the team. Wolfman introduced the Frightful Four's most ambitious membership configuration, developed the Nova connection between his simultaneous run on that character and the FF, and used the team format to explore large-scale cosmic threats that his successor Byrne would later ground in more character-focused directions.

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.

PRH presents Mark Waid's Daredevil as a major modern run, built around Matt Murdock facing danger with a different attitude than the bleakest chapters of his history. The tone is brighter on the surface, but the threats remain personal, strange and severe. This is the entry shelf for Waid's Daredevil: a run that changes the emotional light around Matt without turning him into a simple feel-good hero. It is sharp, clever and character-first, especially for readers who want Daredevil beyond pure noir.

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.