If you have a houseful of kids and both spouses at home, all for the first time for longer than a school break, it may start getting… close… soon, especially if you’ve exhausted your collection of games, and finished cleaning out your garage and basement for the second time. If that’s the case, or you’re just looking for some good reads, Titan Books has just the thing, three new, big books that are sure to keep at least a few of you entertained for the coming weeks. The theme is Marvel Comics superheroes, but they aren’t comics. They are part of Titan Books’ ongoing series of paperback novels delving deep into your favorite superhero characters. Each volume, called an omnibus edition, is a hefty volume featuring three novels by a frequent Marvel writer.
Choose from Diane Duane’s Spider-Man: The Venom Factor Omnibus, including the novels The Venom Factor, The Lizard Sanction, and The Octopus Agenda, Christopher Golden’s X-Men: Mutant Empire Omnibus, featuring novels Siege, Sanctuary, and Salvation, and Greg Cox’s The X-Men and The Avengers: Gamma Quest Omnibus, with novels Lost and Found, Search and Rescue, and Friend or Foe?
Diane Duane’s 656-page Spider-Man: The Venom Factor Omnibus is the ultimate look at the life of Spider-Man. For Peter Parker, it’s one counter after another with three major Spidey characters. Each novel confronts a key adversary, Venom, then the Lizard, then Doctor Octopus. But these aren’t the only familiar faces readers will encounter. And it’s not called The Venom Factor for nothing–look for Venom in a key role throughout these three novels.
At 706 pages, Christopher Golden’s X-Men: Mutant Empire Omnibus introduces readers to the mutant super squad, led by Professor Charles Xavier. These novels take classic comic book stories and fill in details, expanding the stories in ways the stories in the comics may have only brushed over. The novels also allow for characters team up that you’d normally only find in a comic book crossover event. The three novels in this omnibus don’t waste any time on origin story as the films do so much, diving right into the conflict with the X-Man and Magneto, and the Sentinels, ready to destroy them all.
Fans of the Marvel movies will be pleased to see the books aren’t limited to the old Disney vs. Fox rules, meaning you get stories merging members of the X-Men and the Avengers. That’s most apparent in Greg Cox’s The X-Men and The Avengers: Gamma Quest Omnibus, bringing together Captain America, Nick Fury, Scarlet Witch, Rogue, Wolverine, the Hulk, Iron Man, and many more. This omnibus has 576 pages of Marvel action–sure to keep your kids, spouse, or self, occupied for more than a few hours.
Don’t see what you’re looking for? Find even more of Titan Books’ Marvel tie-in novels from several previously reviewed here at borg.
Contact your local comic book shop, like Elite Comics, to order these and get them the soonest–many shops are still open for business and shipping directly to your home. If your local shop isn’t available, click on any of the above book titles to order them from Amazon.
C.J. Bunce
Editor
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