The Avengers Omnibus Vol. 4

Jason Aaron's Avengers Forever is the cosmic-scale companion to his main Avengers run — a multiverse-spanning series bringing together Avengers variants from across the Marvel omniverse to battle the Multiversal Masters of Evil, a team of the most dangerous villains from different realities assembled by a version of Doom who conquered his entire universe. Aaron used the multiverse premise to comment on the Avengers concept itself, asking what the team means when its existence replicates across every possible reality.

Jason Aaron rebuilds Earth’s Mightiest Heroes around Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, then adds Black Panther, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Robbie Reyes. Celestials, vampires, the War of the Realms, Khonshu and the Phoenix Force turn the opening movement of his run into one escalating cosmic epic.

Jason Aaron rebuilds Earth’s Mightiest Heroes around Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, then adds Black Panther, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Robbie Reyes. Celestials, vampires, the War of the Realms, Khonshu and the Phoenix Force turn the opening movement of his run into one escalating cosmic epic.

Jonathan Hickman wrote Avengers and New Avengers as a single three-year story about two problems: a universe expanding beyond what heroes can protect, and a secret council willing to destroy worlds to save this one. The two titles are designed to be read alternating: Avengers is scale and optimism, New Avengers is the Illuminati quietly deciding who dies. Infinity is where they meet. It is the most structurally ambitious Avengers run ever published, and it builds directly to Secret Wars.

Secret Invasion is the Marvel event that made paranoia the plot. Brian Michael Bendis spent years seeding Skrull replacements across the Avengers titles before the full infiltration exploded into a line-wide crossover. The premise — any hero could be a Skrull — destabilized reader trust in every character simultaneously. Collects the core Secret Invasion #1–8 limited series, plus key tie-in issues from New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, and the Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? one-shot.

Avengers vs. X-Men Omnibus — the Phoenix Force returns to Earth and splits the Marvel universe. Captain America vs. Cyclops, the Phoenix Five transform the world, Hope Summers as the chosen one. The event that changed everything. Avengers vs. X-Men #0-12 plus AVX: VS #1-6 and AvX Consequences #1-5 collected in the complete omnibus. The Phoenix Force returns to Earth targeting Hope Summers — Captain America demands she be handed over, Cyclops refuses. Twelve issues of Marvel's biggest superhero war: the Avengers fighting the Phoenix Five (Cyclops, Emma, Namor, Colossus, Magik with Phoenix power). Ends with Cyclops in prison and the mutant population beginning to rise again. The event that launched the All-New Marvel NOW era.

Onslaught was the 1996 crossover built to clear the board: a psychic entity born from Xavier and Magneto that ends with the Avengers and Fantastic Four apparently dead. The reason to read it now is what it was for: Marvel needed to move its non-mutant heroes out of the way for Heroes Reborn, and Onslaught is the machinery that did it. It also pays off years of Xavier subplots — the villain is his own repressed capacity for violence, which is a better idea than the event's reputation suggests.

The second Hickman omnibus takes the run to Time Runs Out: eight months into the future, with the Avengers split and the incursions accelerating. This is where the moral question stops being hypothetical: the Illuminati have destroyed worlds, the other Avengers know, and there is no version of the argument where anyone is clean. Hickman also does something rare in superhero comics — he lets the plan fail, and the volume ends with the universe actually running out of time.

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.