Years ago I purchased all seven Superman Rebirth Deluxe Hardcovers, four of which collected Tomasi and Gleason’s Rebirth run. Despite an omnibus edition of their run being released a few years ago, I resisted buying it and stuck with the deluxes.

I recently caved and bought the omnibus for a variety of reasons, and wanted to talk about it a bit here. How did it measure up with other collected versions? Glad you asked!

I still think Superman Rebirth was one of the best ever periods for the Man of Steel, and definitely the best of the more recent eras. Fans absolutely adore Tomasi and Gleason’s contribution, which deservedly got an omnibus release that has been talked about a lot online. The reasons I bought a copy are as follow:

1. It’s Great

And it looks great on the shelf. Can’t wait for the Jurgens volume, which I’ve preordered. Nuff said.

2. No Fill-In Stories

This was the clinching factor for me. The omnibus only collects the Tomasi and Gleason issues with none of the fill-ins (see a comment by Pat Gleason from a YouTube review about their creative process below!). Since Rebirth was released bi-weekly, there were a good 7-8 filler issues to give the main creative team a breather every now and then.

I went back and reread these stories, which were collected in the deluxes, and while none of them were horrible, they weren’t anything to write home about, either. They were issues I’d skip when rereading, anyway, so in the end they were just extra pages taking up space.

While not a huge size difference between four deluxes and one omnibus, it does save some space on my shelf real estate, and that is definitely something!

Oversized issues that are collected that had stories by other creative teams as well- Superman Annual #1, Superman Special, and Action Comics #1000, to name a couple- also just have the Tomasi/Gleason story, so that saves some more space there as well, and it flows better in its entirety.

The omnibus also has the entirety of the “Super Sons of Tomorrow” crossover with Super Sons and Teen Titans, whereas the deluxes just had the two issues of Superman. While it’s definitely a Teen Titans story more than a Superman story and not one I cared for very much, it also was written by Tomasi and should make completists happy.

3. It Was Put Together With Love!

It’s the little things sometimes.

A new cover by Pat Gleason is a big plus, don’t get me wrong. But the other great thing about this tome is that it collects the stories in their proper order.

The final story of the Tomasi/Gleason run, from Action 1000, was annoyingly collected in the Rebirth trades in the beginning of the volume, even though it does not make sense chronologically. Even worse, when the hardcovers were released sometime after, that story was still placed right BEFORE the family moves back to Metropolis, which is again in the wrong spot.

Okay sure, not exactly a dealbreaker, as I guess you could flip back and forth. Still, the omnibus has that story at the very end for a wonderful conclusion, which not only makes for better reading flow but also demonstrates that this was made by fans, for fans. Good stuff.

All in all, I think this is an excellent tome put together handsomely- sewn binding and minimal gutter loss here too. This run is a great place to start if someone is reading Superman for the first time, or for a long time fan. I highly recommend it!

Capeage Meter: 9 of 10

If you want a review of the actual stories collected in this book, and not just of the book itself, please check out my “Rebirth Revisited” series I did a few years back. Thanks!