The Spectre by Ostrander & Mandrake Omnibus Vol. 1

The Spectre by Ostrander & Mandrake, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake took on The Spectre in 1992, after acclaimed runs on Suicide Squad and Batman, and made it DC's most serious book about judgement. Ostrander writes theology rather than superheroics: the Spectre has unlimited power and no idea how to use it well, and the run is largely about the difference between vengeance and justice. Mandrake's art is genuinely frightening, and the book is far stranger than anything DC was publishing under its main line. The second Spectre omnibus completes Ostrander and Mandrake's run, one of the longest and least compromising books DC published in the nineties. The back half is where Ostrander stops asking whether the Spectre is right and starts asking whether Jim Corrigan deserves to exist at all. The original series proposal is a genuinely interesting document, it shows how much of the run was planned from the start.

The second Spectre omnibus completes Ostrander and Mandrake's run, one of the longest and least compromising books DC published in the nineties. The back half is where Ostrander stops asking whether the Spectre is right and starts asking whether Jim Corrigan deserves to exist at all. The original series proposal is a genuinely interesting document, it shows how much of the run was planned from the start.

Jim Corrigan is a dead detective and the Spectre is what he came back as, and in the 1970s that meant murderers being turned into wood and fed through a bandsaw. Fleisher and Aparo wrote the most extreme superhero comics the Code ever allowed, and DC cancelled the run for it.

Cade Skywalker is stranded on Tatooine with Black Sun assassins on his trail, while rival Sith struggle for control of the galaxy. Legacy then turns to Ania Solo, whose discovery of a damaged droid and a lightsaber draws her into a new conspiracy. This omnibus brings together the later chapters of Cade’s story, Legacy – War and the complete 2013 series. Standard cover by Jan Duursema.

Cade Skywalker is stranded on Tatooine with Black Sun assassins on his trail, while rival Sith struggle for control of the galaxy. Legacy then turns to Ania Solo, whose discovery of a damaged droid and a lightsaber draws her into a new conspiracy. This omnibus brings together the later chapters of Cade’s story, Legacy – War and the complete 2013 series. Direct Market cover by Dave Wilkins.

Suicide Squad by John Ostrander, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. Suicide Squad by John Ostrander Omnibus Vol. 1 collects the run that invented everything the concept is known for: Amanda Waller, the bomb in the neck, and the certainty that some of the team will not come back. Ostrander writes it as a Cold War espionage book that happens to use supervillains, and it remains far sharper than any adaptation of it. Amanda Waller keeps sending convicts on missions the government will deny, and in the second omnibus the bill starts arriving: congressional hearings, defections, and a body count among characters readers had come to like. Ostrander wrote the political thriller everyone else has been copying since.

The Spectre by Ostrander & Mandrake, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake took on The Spectre in 1992, after acclaimed runs on Suicide Squad and Batman, and made it DC's most serious book about judgement. Ostrander writes theology rather than superheroics: the Spectre has unlimited power and no idea how to use it well, and the run is largely about the difference between vengeance and justice. Mandrake's art is genuinely frightening, and the book is far stranger than anything DC was publishing under its main line. The second Spectre omnibus completes Ostrander and Mandrake's run, one of the longest and least compromising books DC published in the nineties. The back half is where Ostrander stops asking whether the Spectre is right and starts asking whether Jim Corrigan deserves to exist at all. The original series proposal is a genuinely interesting document, it shows how much of the run was planned from the start.

The second Spectre omnibus completes Ostrander and Mandrake's run, one of the longest and least compromising books DC published in the nineties. The back half is where Ostrander stops asking whether the Spectre is right and starts asking whether Jim Corrigan deserves to exist at all. The original series proposal is a genuinely interesting document, it shows how much of the run was planned from the start.

Darkseid cannot beat Earth's heroes, so he sets out to make the public stop believing in them instead. Legends is the first event DC ran after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the fallout created the Suicide Squad, the Justice League International and the Flash everyone knows today.

Suicide Squad by John Ostrander Omnibus Vol. 1 collects the run that invented everything the concept is known for: Amanda Waller, the bomb in the neck, and the certainty that some of the team will not come back. Ostrander writes it as a Cold War espionage book that happens to use supervillains, and it remains far sharper than any adaptation of it.

Amanda Waller keeps sending convicts on missions the government will deny, and in the second omnibus the bill starts arriving: congressional hearings, defections, and a body count among characters readers had come to like. Ostrander wrote the political thriller everyone else has been copying since.