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Near Mint Condition

Newly Announced: Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 5 (+ the problem with its mapping explained)

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This weekend, Marvel announced their most-anticipated omnibus via my friend and colleague Omar’s YouTube channel, Near Mint Condition: Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 5!

(That isn’t an exaggeration; the online omnibus community produces a yearly secret ballot to determine its most-wanted books and this one tops the list, as also reported by Omar.)

This is the last omnibus X-fans need to complete their oversized bookshelf of Uncanny X-Men (1963) #1-321. That means it’s time for the celebration to begin! Let the X-villagers rejoice!

Well… not quite.

The hesitation comes down to the initially-announced contents of the book, what fans assumed it would contain, what Marvel has recently reprinted, and how Marvel plans to continue collecting Uncanny X-Men in omnibus in the coming years.

(Note: Omar very kindly invited me to a discussion of this topic on his channel, but I couldn’t make it work across time zones. Plus, I’m trying to keep my X-Men X-Posure contained to CK, at the moment.)

Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 5 Contents

The contents of this volume, as announced by Omar on Near Mint Condition, are:

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #194-209 & Annual 9, New Mutant Special Edition (1985) #1, Nightcrawler (1985) #1-4, Longshot (1985) #1-6, and material from Marvel Fanfare (1982) #33.

I’ll explain why all of those issues are in the omnibus in just a moment. First, let’s talk about what’s missing. Or, should I say “missing” – since not everyone agrees.

What is Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 5 “missing”?

The initial solicited contents of Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 5 skips two runs that many buyers of all of the X-Men omnibus line anticipated it would include, for reasons I’ll cover below.

Here is what the contents do not currently include:

  • Uncanny X-Men (1963) Annual 10 and New Mutants (1983) Annual 2
  • Avengers (1963) #263; Fantastic Four (1961) #286; X-Factor (1986) #1-8 & Annual 1, and potentially some other related material

If you know your X-mapping well, you will immediately see the problem with these exclusions! By leaving Annual 10 out of this volume, Marvel has invented a difference between the mapping of the X-Men “Classic Omnibus” line that begins with Volume 1 and the X-Men “Event Omnibus” line that begins with Mutant Massacre. But, there’s no reason that difference has to exist!

If you’re not a X-Men mapping X-Pert yet, keep reading for a complete X-Plainer. [Read more…] about Newly Announced: Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 5 (+ the problem with its mapping explained)

Krisis on Near Mint Condition, Mapping Scarlet Witch!

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Earlier Tonight I was incredibly excited to re-unite with my “Map My X” compatriots Ødfel and Ryley as well as Near Mint Condition host Omar to dig into mapping a theoretical Scarlet Witch omnibus!

If you’ve never seen one of our “Map My X” streams before, here’s what you need to know: it is a game of fantasy omnibus mapping.

All four of us enter with sometimes wildly different potential maps of 30-60 issues worth of material to cram into a single Marvel Omnibus with a maximum page count in the 1600-page range. Then we haggle for two hours between the four of us and our live commenters over what’s in, what’s out, and what awesome cover should grace the front of the book.

And, if Marvel eventually gets around to printing it, we get to see just how right we were – like when we perfectly hit the mark with our New Mutants, Vol. 2 mapping!

Here’s our incredibly deep diving into the Scarlet Witch Reading Order from her debut in 1964 through the early 1990s (plus, a glimpse at the state of my totally rock-and-roll mane of curls, a frequent topic in the comments section):

The final mapping we all agreed to in the video was:

Scarlet Witch Classic Omnibus, collecting Uncanny X-Men #4-5 (and material from 6-7 & 11), Strange Tales #128, Avengers (1963) #16, 76, 128, 185-187, 234 (and material from #181-182), Giant-Size Avengers #1 & 4, Vision & Scarlet Witch (1982) 1-4, Marvel Team-Up #125 (2nd story), Marvel Fanfare #6 & 58 (2nd story), Marvel Two-in-One #66, Doctor Strange (1974) #60, Vision & Scarlet Witch (1985) #1-12, West Coast Avengers #2 & 42-45 (and material from 46), Marvel Super-Heroes (1999) #10 (1st story), Solo Avengers (1987) #5 (2nd story), Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #60-63 (3rd story), Avengers West Coast #47-57 & 60-62 (and material from 58-59), Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins (1992) #3-7, and Scarlet Witch (1994) #1-4 (plus extras from the Vision & The Scarlet Witch – The Saga Of Wanda And Vision 2021 trade paperback).

However, that was NOT the mapping I walked in with! I felt the book should include more classic material and cut off after Avengers West Coast #62, to be followed up with a The Avengers & Scarlet Witch volume to collect the remainder of West Coast.

Here was the map I walked into the show planning to pitch:

Scarlet Witch Classic Omnibus, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #4-7 & 11 (and material from 53), Strange Tales (1951) #128, Avengers (1963) #16-18, 22, 25, 75-76, 128, 181-182, 185-187, 234, & 312 (and material from 47-49), Giant-Size Avengers (1974) #1 & 4, Marvel Two-In-One (1974) #66, Vision & Scarlet Witch (1982) #1-4, Marvel Team-Up (1972) #125 (2nd story) & #129-130, Marvel Fanfare (1982) #6 & 58 (2nd story), Power-Man & Iron Fist (1978) #102, Doctor Strange (1974) #60, Vision & Scarlet Witch Vol. 2 (1985) #1-12, West Coast Avengers Vol. 2 (1985) #2 & 42-45 (and material from 46), Marvel Super-Heroes Vol. 3 (1990) #10 (1st story), Solo Avengers (1987) #5 (2nd story), Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #60-63 (3rd story), and Avengers West Coast (1989) #47-57 & 60-62 (and material from 58-59).

What’s the difference? Aside from the slightly earlier cut-off, I was planning to include a lot more material to form a more complete Scarlet Witch Reading Order!

I erred on the side of including more of Scarlet Witch’s Silver Age material, both to establish her leaving the Brotherhood, and to show some of her key early adventures with the Avengers, including all of their major Magneto encounters.

I also felt it was worth including a Team-Up two-parter with Vision from #129-130, as well as a Wanda-focused issue of Power-Man & Iron Fist. And, finally, I had less of a problem with double-dipping all of “Vision Quest” and “Darker Than Scarlet” from the Avengers by John Byrne omnibus, since they are her signature stories.

Want to work through your own Scarlet Witch mapping? Check out my previously patrons-only Definitive Guide to The Scarlet Witch to find a complete Scarlet Witch Reading Order of all of her appearances from the Silver Age through 2018!