2020 October & November Epic Collections

From Near Mint Condition and Epic Marvel Podcast's Breaking News: 11 New Marvel Epic Collections in 2020! Video and Near Mint Condition's provisional schedule on FB we had a pretty good idea which trades were out when in Comic stores:

September:

Black Panther Epic Collection: Panther's Prey
Captain America Epic Collection: Monsters And Men
Master Of Kung Fu Epic Collection: Traitors To The Crown

October:

Doctor Strange Epic Collection: Alone Against Eternity
Incredible Hulk Epic Collection Vol. 15

November:

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: Who Will Judge The Hulk?
X-Factor Epic Collection Vol. 2

December:

Avengers Epic Collection: Heavy Metal
Conan The Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Epic Collection Vol. 2
X-Force Epic Collection Vol. 3
X-Men Epic Collection: The Fate Of The Phoenix

We covered these in 2020 Epic Collections September to December.

The Hachette trade catalogue for September revealed two more - Fantastic Four Epic Collection 6: At War With Atlantis, collecting Fantastic Four 88-104, Annual 7 and Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure, and Thor Epic Collection 19: The Thor War, collecting Thor 437-450, Annuals 16 & 17 - both of which are on sale in Comic shops (via Diamond) on 26th August 2020 and on sale in Book shops (via Hachette) on 8th September 2020.

So when Near Mint Condition and The Epic Marvel Podcast did An Advance Look At Marvel Collected Editions Releasing in October & November of 2020 we thought we knew roughly what to expect. The only things we knew might be missing were licensed titles like Star Wars Legends and Conan Chronicles. We might have got that a tinsy bit wrong....

In Book Shops October:

Star Wars Legends: Tales of the Jedi 1

Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi – Force Storm #1-5
Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi – Prisoner of Bogan #1-5
Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi – Force War #1-5
Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi #0

This is a new Star Wars Epic Collection series, the first one for some time, covering the ancient history of the Jedi as depicted by Dark Horse.

I've seen the following predicted for later volumes in this series

2

Golden Age of the Sith 0-5
Fall of the Sith Empire 1-5
Tales of the Jedi 1-5
The Freedon Nadd Uprising 1-2

3

Dark Lords of the Sith 1-6
Sith War 1-6
Redemption 1-5

Black Panther 3: Panther's Prey

Panther's Prey 1-4
Material from Marvel Comics Presents 13-37, 148
Material from Solo Avengers 19
Material from Marvel Super Heroes 1
Material from Marvel Fanfare 60
Material from FF Unlimited 1

Very much as expected.

Captain America 10 Monsters and Men

Captain America 267-285, Annual 6
Defenders 106

Very much as expected, possibly with a couple more issues that we thought.

Captain America Epic 11 then is a one volume gap so we know what's in it in terms of Cap: There's four Zeck issues left, 286-289 the first three of which are a Deathlok story. 290-301 have been reprinted in Captain America: Death of the Red Skull. Annual 7 is yet to be reprinted. That's the equivilent of 18 issues: is there enough space for the Falcon 4 issue limites series?

Venom 1 Symbiosis

Amazing Spider-Man #258, 300, 315-317, 332-333, 346-347, 388
Web of Spider-Man #1
Avengers: Deathtrap – The Vault
Darkhawk #13-14
Material from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #25-26
Material from Web of Spider-Man Annual #7-8
Material from Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #12

A complete surprise! When I looked at Marvel Epic Collections and the MCU I mentioned Venom 2 was due 2nd October and reckoned an Amazing Spider-Man Epic 18 Venom (295-310, Annual 22) repaint was likely. Never in a million years did I think they'd do a Venom Epic. Most of thius is already repinted in the Amazing Spider-Man Epics.

Master Of Kung Fu 3 Traitors to the Crown

Master Of Kung Fu 54-79

Pretty much as expected.

MOKF runs to 125 plus Marvel Team Up 82-85, What If 16, story in Marvel Comics Presents 1-8 and MOKF: Bleeding Black. That's probably 3 more Epics.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is scheduled for cinemas February 12th 2021 , does that mean 2021's Master of Kung-Fu volume will be earlier in late April? Maybe a second volume to tie in to the home release a few months later?

In Book Shops November:

Conan Chronicles 6 Song of Belit

Conan the Barbarian (2012) #7-25

Almost exactly what I was expecting, completing Dark Horse's 2012-2014 Conan The Barbarian.

X-Factor 3 Angel of Death

X-Factor 21-36, Annual 3
Power Pack 36

Oh my. This book was listed in Near Mint Condition and Epic Marvel Podcast's Breaking News: 11 New Marvel Epic Collections in 2020! Video as X-Factor Epic 2. My guess for that was

X-Factor 10-20, Annual 2
Thor 373-374 & 378
Power Pack 27 Incredible Hulk 336-337

Well that prediction for volume 2 looks good still for the actual issues, and when I had a go at predicting the rest of X-Factor I got this one all but dead on. I'm now able to predict the next few accurately:

4 "Inferno/Judgement War"

37-50
UXM 242 & 243
Marvel Fanfare 50

5

51-59 & Annuals 4-5
UXM 262-4 & Annual 14
Prisoner of Love

6 "Xtinction Agenda"

61-70 & Annual 6
UXM 270-272, possibly 273, definitely 280
New Mutants 95-97

I'll be honest, I think I'd have preferred Epic 2: 12-17 are unreprinted, and thus not on Comixology*, and it looks like it'll have a nice selection of bonus material with X-Factor's appearances elsewhere. In Epic 3 21-26 are in Fall of the Mutants v2, and 36 was in Inferno v1. 27-36 & Annual 3 were also printed in the Inferno Prologue HC.

* OK 13 is but that's a mistake: Comixology got it when they should have got X-Factor 130 to go in the X-Men: Onslaught Aftermath book.

Doctor Strange 4 Alone Against Eternity

Doctor Strange 6-26, Annual 1
Tomb of Dracula 44,
Giant Size Doctor Strange 1 cover

As expected!

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is scheduled for cinemas May 7th 2021, does that mean 2021's Doctor Strange volume will be earlier in late April? Maybe a second volume to tie in to the home release a few months later?

Doctor Strange Epic 8 Triumph and Torment is out which collects Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme 1–13. So Epics 5-7 need to collect Doctor Strange 27-81 and the Doctor Strange stories from Strange Tales 1-19.

Epic 13 is out too collecting Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme 76-90 so we know Epics 9-12 collect Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme 14-75. That's 61 issues over 4 Epics so we're looking for a few extras to go in there but what?

Incredible Hulk 14 Going Grey

Incredible Hulk 314-330, Annual 14-15
Material from Marvel Fanfare 29

When this was discussed on Near Mint Condition and Epic Marvel Podcast's Breaking News: 11 New Marvel Epic Collections in 2020! Video it was down as Epic 15 and they suggested it might be the material in between the Bill Mantlo (ends Hulk 312) and Peter David (starts Hulk 331) runs. Maths suggested, based on the number of issues, that Epic 15 needed to start c331, not end before it. It turns out that EVERYONE was right because it's actually the volume before 15, with EXACTLY the contents many were hoping for 15 to have.

Hulk Visionaries: John Byrne reprints 314-319 & Annual 14 plus material from Marvel Fanfare 29. That means that 320-330 & Annual 15 are reprinted here for the first time.

15 "Ground Zero"

331 - 346 (the issue after Ground Zero Far far too elegant a stopping point to miss that)
The Big Change Grahic Novel (same month as 337)

16

346-362
Web of Spider-Man 44
Fantastic Four 320
Avengers Annual 17 (Main story)
Marvel Comics Presents 26 (Hulk story)

17 "Countdown"

363-380 & Annual 16 (Lifeform)
Marvel Comics Presents 49 (Hulk story)

18

381-396 & Annual 17 (Subteranean Wars)
X-Factor 76

Avengers West Coast 4 Vision Quest

Avengers West Coast 38-52, Annual 3-4
material from Avengers Spotlight 23

This was a complete surprise, and not just because we didn't know about it! Avengers West Coast 3 Tales to Astonish is only scheduled for release in August 2020 so to get twpo so close is unusual. Of course now I see it it's obvious that it's there to tie into the WandaVision television series, which is backed up by a rerelease of the original Vision & Scarlet Witch trade.

No real objections to this as Visionquest is a great story burt *maybe* Avengers Epic 8 (Avengers 129-148 & Giant Size Avengers 2-4), which shows the Vision & carlet Witch marrying, might have been a better choice as a celbratory Vision & Scarlet Witch volume?

Does an extra Avengers West Coast in 2020 mean no Avengers West Coast for 2021?

52 issues and 4 annuals will then be Epic'd out of West Coast Avengers run of 102 issues and 8 annuals: 50 issues, effectively 52 down to 75 & 100 being double sized, and 4 double sized annuals remain. That hits 60 issues and 3 epics on the nose.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, Conan Chronicles, Venom and Avengers West Coast we didn't know about plus we had the wrong Volume Numbers for X-Factor and Hulk.

So the volumes we don't know contents for yet are these, ordered by their comic shop dates:

November:

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: Who Will Judge The Hulk?

December:

Avengers Epic Collection: Heavy Metal
Conan The Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Epic Collection Vol. 2
X-Force Epic Collection Vol. 3
X-Men Epic Collection: The Fate Of The Phoenix

They will be due in book shops, and thus on the Hachette catalogue for, December 2020 or possibly January 2021. It's possible they might be joined by another Star Wars book.......