Mike Friedrich

Green Lantern: The Silver Age, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 focuses on Hal Jordan's Silver Age mythology, with Green Lantern shaped by the ring, the oath, the Corps, alien threats and sharp heroic design. The appeal is not only continuity; it is watching a specific DC period find its tone, cast and visual rhythm. Hal Jordan first wore a Green Lantern ring in 1959, in a reinvention that turned a 1940s crime-fighter with a magic lantern into science fiction with an interstellar police force behind it. This is where the mythology gets built piece by piece: Sinestro, Star Sapphire, the Guardians of the Universe and the idea that the ring runs on willpower. Gil Kane's figure work is the other reason to read it, he drew flight better than anyone in the era, and the designs have barely changed since.

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 Bronze Age is when Batman stopped being camp: after the 1966 television series ended, DC deliberately returned the character to the darkness he started in. This is the era that produced Ra's al Ghul, Man-Bat and the modern Two-Face, and it is the direct ancestor of every serious Batman story since. Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams get the credit, but the volume shows the whole line turning at once, the change was editorial policy, not one creative team.

Hal Jordan first wore a Green Lantern ring in 1959, in a reinvention that turned a 1940s crime-fighter with a magic lantern into science fiction with an interstellar police force behind it. This is where the mythology gets built piece by piece: Sinestro, Star Sapphire, the Guardians of the Universe and the idea that the ring runs on willpower. Gil Kane's figure work is the other reason to read it, he drew flight better than anyone in the era, and the designs have barely changed since.

Includes the complete "War of the Super-Villains" arc! Iron Man finds himself in the middle of the "War of the Super-Villains," a multi-part epic that is a highwater mark in 1970s Iron Man storytelling. Mandarin vs. Yellow Claw! M. O. D. O. K. vs. the Mad Thinker! Everyone against ol' Shellhead! Will a visit to the San Diego Comic-Con provide the rest our hero needs?

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.