Marvel & DC Omnibus

Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote Black Panther for five years and treated Wakanda as a political problem rather than a setting: a monarchy whose subjects have started asking why it exists. The first half is a revolution against T'Challa by people with legitimate grievances, which almost no superhero comic attempts. The second half moves to a Wakandan empire in deep space, thousands of years in the future, where T'Challa is an amnesiac slave. Both halves are genuinely political rather than politically flavoured.

Hollywood heavyweight Reginald Hudlin delivers one of the most influential Black Panther runs of all! Teaming with superstar artist John Romita Jr., Reginald Hudlin begins by going right back to the start — presenting T'Challa's origin in cinematic scope! The secret history of Wakanda is revealed as Princess Shuri becomes a huge part of the Black Panther mythos!

Two decades of Black Panther stories in one action-packed volume! Return to Wakanda for more tales of the Black Panther - beginning with T'Challa setting out on far-out adventures that could only be conceived by his legendary co-creator, Jack Kirby! The King of Comics sets the King of Wakanda on an epic quest to discover the startling secret of King Solomon's Frog that sees him encounter alien races, battle eternal samurai warriors and more!

Completing the original adventures of the first Captain Marvel, from his high-flying cosmic adventures in the depths of space, to the heartbreaking and all-time-great story of his tragic death. Welcome to the next level of cosmic consciousness with the adventures of Captain Marvel! From Earth to the Moon to the Watcher's homeworld and into the Negative Zone, these galaxy-spanning stories set the tone for Marvel epics.

Doom Patrol by Gerard Way and Nick Derington: The Deluxe Edition collects the Young Animal relaunch, which opened with a sentient gyro and got stranger from there. Way writes the Doom Patrol as absurdist comedy with real feeling underneath, and Nick Derington's clean, poppy artwork makes the strangeness readable.

Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Omnibus collects the original run by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, in which a group of accident survivors nobody wants are assembled by a man in a wheelchair, months before the X-Men did the same thing. It also ends with the team dying, which nobody did in 1968.

A superhero built out of a bodybuilding advert investigates the end of the world while a rock star overdoses in a phone box and narrates his own childhood. Morrison and Quitely made their first book together an argument that superhero comics are worth defending, and it is still the strangest thing either of them has done.

Aquaman by Peter David Omnibus collects the run that rebuilt the character from scratch in the 1990s: the beard, the harpoon hand, the temper. Peter David took a hero who had become a punchline and turned him into an angry, funny, genuinely dangerous king, and almost every modern take on Aquaman — including the films — starts from what he did here. Over 1,500 pages in a single oversized hardcover.

Aquaman: The Death of a Prince Deluxe Edition collects the 1970s run in which Black Manta murders Aquaman's infant son and the character never fully recovers. It is the darkest thing DC published about Arthur Curry for decades, drawn largely by Jim Aparo, and it is the origin of the grief that every later writer — Peter David, Geoff Johns, Jeff Parker — has had to work around.

Aquaman: The Search for Mera Deluxe Edition collects the nine-issue Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo run that first treated Aquaman as a serious dramatic character. Mera vanishes, Atlantis falls into the hands of a scheming politician named Narkran, and Arthur abandons his throne to look for his wife while Black Manta circles. It is the moment Aquaman stopped being a Silver Age curiosity.

The Swamp Thing by Ram V & Mike Perkins Omnibus collects the acclaimed run that introduced Levi Kamei, a new Swamp Thing caught between the Green and a body that keeps changing without his consent. Ram V writes ecological horror with a migrant's perspective on belonging, and Mike Perkins draws plant matter as something genuinely alien. Multiple Eisner nominations and one of DC's best-reviewed recent series.

Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis Omnibus collects the original Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson run that created the character, plus the material that followed before Alan Moore arrived. Wrightson's swamp is one of the most beautiful things ever drawn in a mainstream comic.

Swamp Thing by Len Wein and Kelley Jones: Deluxe Edition collects the return of the character's co-creator, forty years on, drawn by Kelley Jones in the most gothic register the book has ever had. Len Wein came back to Swamp Thing shortly before his death, and this is that work.

Swamp Thing by Mark Millar and Phil Hester Omnibus collects the final Vertigo run, in which Millar takes the character to the end of his story: Swamp Thing is told he is destined to become the elemental force that ends the world, and spends the run trying to work out whether that is a prophecy or a threat.

Six villains who cannot work with anybody else keep taking jobs together, and Gail Simone spends the second half of the run making you care about every one of them before the bill arrives. The finale is one of the bleakest endings DC has published and it is fully earned.

DC celebrates the 80-year history of the King of the Seven Seas, Aquaman! This new hardcover includes Aquaman's most memorable appearances, from his 1940's debut in the pages of More Fun Comics #73 to recent classics from top creators including Geoff Johns and more! Discover the stories that shaped the hero of the seas!

Harleen collects Stjepan Sejic's painted retelling of how Dr. Harleen Quinzel became Harley Quinn, told entirely from her point of view. She is a serious clinician with a grant, a thesis about empathy and a growing suspicion that Gotham's justice system creates the monsters it punishes. The Joker does not seduce her so much as agree with her, and that is what makes the book frightening.

Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn and Generation Joker collects two spin-offs from Sean Murphy's White Knight universe: Harley investigating a copycat while raising the Joker's twins, and those twins grown into a story of their own.

Mad Love is the story that turned Harley Quinn from a single episode henchwoman into a permanent fixture of the DC universe. Paul Dini and Bruce Timm tell how Doctor Harleen Quinzel met the Joker inside Arkham Asylum and never left, drawn in the clean animated style that defined a whole generation of Batman comics.

Thirty years of Harley Quinn in one volume, from her first appearance as the Joker's henchwoman in the animated series to the solo antihero who now outsells most of the Bat family. The anniversary collection picks the turning points rather than the best sellers, which makes it the clearest map of how the character changed.

Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo wrote Joker in 2008 as a crime novel: the Joker released from Arkham, reclaiming his territory, seen entirely from the point of view of a low-level henchman. Narrating from a henchman's perspective is what makes it work: the reader is as frightened as he is, and the Joker is never explained. Bermejo paints him without theatricality, scarred, physical, wearing a cheap suit, and the result is closer to Scorsese than to a superhero comic. Batman appears for four pages and it is enough.

The middle and strongest stretch of Marvel's longest-running horror series. Dracula is hunted across Europe while the book turns from monster-of-the-month into a genuine serial novel with a continuing cast. Gene Colan's shadow work here is the reason artists still study this run.

Bill Mantlo and a young Jim Lee on Alpha Flight, collected for the first time: issues #30-70 plus annuals, 1,192 pages.

Patrick Gleason wrote and drew Robin: Son of Batman after years drawing Damian Wayne in Batman and Robin, giving him a solo book about atonement. The premise is the Year of Blood: Damian retracing the atrocities the League of Assassins made him commit as a child and undoing each one. Gleason knows the character better than anyone, and having him on script and art gives the book a coherence solo Robin series rarely achieve.