Great review. I wish I had been into the omnibus collecting scene back at this time, because I definitely would have tried to pick this up. Especially for $100. Hopefully DC does do a reprint. I'm guessing they will increase the price to at least $125. Neal Adams is probably my pick for favorite artist that worked in superhero comics. It's rare to see that type of talent grace the page, and it's not a surprise that while he didn't have huge lengthily runs for issues and issues like some other guys, what he did share with the world left a lasting impression. It's a shame he just passed away. Even with the grumbles regarding the recoloring Neal redoing some panels in the book, I think that omnibus is a must-have, especially for long time Batman fans. I think his Green Lantern/Green Arrow omnibus with Denny O'Neal was just reprinted, and already sold out.
Nice overview, although personally I skipped this one as I have no interest in Adams re-done art work - hoping that when they do the Bronze Age Batman omni's they will stick with the original art
You're right. Batman 227 is a key even though it does not have any Adams interior art. Collector demand for it because of the cover swipe has made it arguably the most expensive Adams Batman comic that's out there now...
I had a large poster of this cover on a wall in a room downstairs. It was taken down when my wife and her mother turned the room into their sewing room. Aarghhh!!
I passed on this when it first came out. Felt it was a bit of a cash grab for DC. I already have the hardcover Vol 1-3 collected editions and also Odyssey just to be complete. Maybe I would have been more interested if they came out with an Absolute edition instead.
I can't afford this on the aftermarket, so I bought the older, standard-sized hardcovers instead, lol. I'm not a huge fan of the recoloring, but it's still good stuff. I just have yet to read the insane Batman: Odyssey, though I do own it.
According to Ethan Van Sciver, Dan Didio negotiated a lucrative contract with Neal Adams that guaranteed four mini-series and variant covers for most of the books in the DC lineup - the only caveat was that Neal could write and draw whatever he wanted. In addition to "Odyssey", we got "The Coming of The Supermen", a "Deadman" mini-series and Neal's last work, "Batman Vs. Ra's Al Ghul". Neal Adams, RIP.
@@omegablu6881 generally speaking, the "reading" experience is the same: remeniscent of the worst comics from the 1990's, it's all completely improvised, whatever Neal felt like drawing, then adding dialogue in a patchwork effort later to resemble a "story". New characters are introduced with no organization or logical development - there's no structure and lots of grammatical errors, as if the script was dictated and transcribed by a computer. He also illustrated 2 short stories for anniversary issues of Action and Detective Comics that were okay, largely because they were written by other people. I think Dan Didio thought he had scored a coup by securing new work from Neal, not realizing he was going to get lemons. All of his mini-series had bad reviews and Neal took it personally saying anyone who didn't like them was "stupid"; judging from his reaction, either he thought the work he did was outstanding and we were ungrateful, or he really can't distinguish good writing from bad.
