I reviewed the previous Epic trade here. Collecting The Defenders #26-41, Giant-Size Defender #5 & Annual #1 and Marvel Treasury Edition #12. The Headmen return in this collection although their name was in the last collection’s title. This collection helped to cement the ongoing story together for me since I had a bunch of these issues, but I was often getting only every-other issue when I was a kid.

Collects Detective Comics Annual #1, Green Arrow #1-8, Green Arrow Annual #1, The Question #17-18, The Question Annual #1, Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1-3 This was an impulse buy when I was in the shop not too long ago. I have The Longbow Hunters in a collected edition. I enjoy that story. I wanted to see a bit more of where Grell took Green Arrow having only seen the Urban Hunter version of GA in The Longbow Hunters and The Question.

This review is based on the Kindle™ edition of the book. The cover says that it collects issues #1 - #10 of Omega the Unknown and issues #76 - #78 of The Defenders. That’s not correct. Defenders #78 isn’t in this collection, nor does it need to be. I had Omega #5 and the two Defenders issues as a kid. Going back and re-reading those issues plus the entirety of the series, plus the intro by Mary Skrenes and the lettercols that they added, it makes a bit more sense.

This volume collects the first eleven issues of the series that began in 2018. This was an impulse buy for me. I saw it in the shop a few weeks ago and I picked it up. after looking through the first few pages. The art was nice enough and with Waid at the writing helm, what could go wrong? Doctor Strange can be really a hit-and-miss for creative teams. If you get the wrong team on the title … especially the writer … the good doctor just doesn’t seem like himself.

With quite the list of contributing creators : Collecting DEFENDERS (1972) #12-25, GIANT-SIZE DEFENDERS #1-4 and MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE (1974) #6-7 - plus material from MYSTERY TALES #21, WORLD OF FANTASY #11 and TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #9. I originally sought out this tome as I was going to do a write-up about the weird super-villain group known as The Headmen who appeared in several of Gerber’s trippy Defenders comics in the 70’s.

Shortly after I arrived on the planet, a television series appeared featuring a comic book character who would grow to be my favorite of them all. My first recollection of this TV series is actually the film that was based on the first season of the series. In the film, Batman and Robin have to deal with the likes of The Joker ( Caesar Romero ), The Riddler ( Frank Gorshin ), Catwoman ( Lee Meriwhether ), and The Penguin ( Burgess Meredith ).

My Secret Origin I had a head-start in reading comics with a hand-me-down collection. I began selecting my own comics in the early 1970’s. I was in the early years of elementary school, at the time. I’d never been to a large con before, but some fellow comic-book-loving friends were getting together at Baltimore Comic-Con this year. I made plans to join them. I was primarily interested in meeting with some of the professional writers and artists.

When I was a kid, my brothers gave me comic books to kind of start and fill out my collection. I wrote about the earliest ones I had owned here: https://jimlawless.net/blog/posts/my-first-comics/ When I started buying comics on my own, DC was probably my favorite publisher. I think the stories were more geared toward elementary school kids like me. At some point, I discovered this hero known as The Flash Justice League of America #97 ( MAR 72 )

Before I was in Kindergarten, I had a comic book collection. It began with some issues that were hand-me-downs and it grew slowly from the late 60’s into the early 70’s. I had plenty of exposure to Batman and Superman: “Night of the Reaper” scared the bejeebers out of me. The DC 100-Page Super Spectacular anthology issues were great! There were a few Marvels in the collection:

Shooter I was a little surprised when I saw an announcement from Krypton Comics in Omaha ( http://www.kryptoncomicsomaha.com ) that comics legend Jim Shooter would be the guest of honor on Free Comic Book Day, this year. I was very happy to chat briefly with him. I had wanted to bring something for Shooter to autograph, but I have had so many comic book purges throughout the years, that my original comics from his tenure at Marvel, Valiant, Defiant, or any other company are either long gone or packed away somewhere.