spectacular shocker wrote:
That being said, I still want all of these issues reprinted in the fourth Omni.  I'm a completist & they are part of this series.  Note I have no reason to beleive they won't be reprinted, but I just wanted to emphasize that even issues in a series that may not be stellar still should be included in a collection like this.
Oh yeah, I'd never advocate for any issues of the main title to be omitted from a collection like this, regardless of quality.  The discussion had turned to "the low point of the series" so I was just saying that IMO these issues clearly are it.  But they should still be included without question.  I think a case can be made for omitting the Marvel Team-Up issues since Shang Chi was such a small part of that storyline (and seemingly only thrown into the mix to avoid them having four consecutive issues featuring Black Widow on the cover).  But no issues of the main title should be omitted.

Despite the overall high quality of this series, three of the four volumes are going to have some material that is sketchy.  Volume 1 will have the fill-in issues prompted by Gulacy and Adkins' deadline troubles.  Volume 2 will feature the fill-ins and inconsistent art during the immediate post-Gulacy era.  And Volume 4 will have the lousy final issues of the series.  Only Volume 3 will be great from cover-to-cover.  But the weak issues were of course just a small part of the overall series.

It strikes me that MOKF and Howard the Duck ended very similarly.  In both cases, the definitive writer left abruptly under less-than-ideal circumstances.  Then we got a couple issues that used up weak inventory fill-in material.  And then new writers took over and wrapped up the series with disappointing results.