War of Kings Aftermath: Realm of Kings Omnibus

War of Kings #2-3.2

by Dan Abnett (Writer)

The War of Kings is over - now the universe must pay the price! A Fault in space-time has ripped open, and the terrifying Cancerverse lies on the other side! To seal the Fault, the cosmos' greatest heroes band together: the Imperial Guard, Inhumans, Nova Corps and Guardians of the Galaxy! New players join the celestial game, like the son of Hulk and the awesome Annihilators. But the Marvel Universe's fate may lie in the hands of one of its greatest villains...Thanos is back in a big way!

Collecting: Realm of Kings 1; Realm of Kings: Inhumans 1-5; Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard 1-5; Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk 1-4; Nova 29-36; Guardians of the Galaxy 20-25; The Thanos Imperative 1-6, Ignition, Devastation; Annihilator 1-4; Annihilators: Earthfall 1-4; Thanos Sourcebook; material from I Am An Avenger 3

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comic Book, Superheroes, Science Fiction

1248 pages, Hardcover

First published December 28, 2011

Reviews

[Relstuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent storytelling continues in the final omnibus capturing the lengthy cosmic Marvel saga. Massive kudos to Marvel for this unique collection. I don't think Marvel has ever put together another event with multiple books broken up in multiple omnibus volumes in story chronological order like they have with this story. Hopefully this series is successful enough that Marvel considers doing more things like this.

[The Lion's Share · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm fed up of investing in these giant cosmic Marvel events and they end up being an abosolute mess.

I don't get why people like these stories. The stories are jumbled, the artwork is average at best and characters are over saturated and realism goes out the window.

The only authors i know that ever got this cosmic thing down are Starlin (Infinity Gauntlet) and Hickman (Fantastic Four).

This was a mess. I can't even recall what the ending was!

[Mohamed Ahmed · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Worst Story Line Of the Whole Cosmic Events So Far.

In this Huge Omnibus, I Only Liked Guardians Of he Galaxy ( Which Was a Constant Good ) and Thanos Imperative to a Degree and Maybe Annihilators: Earth Fall, Which in total is like 25% of the Book, and all others Was Ranging Between Very Bad and Mediocre.

For me Only Annihilation Conquest Omnibus Was Really Good All Other Cosmic Events Was not that Good ( Annihilation Being the 2nd Good ).

[Blindzider · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took awhile, but I finally finished this. The first half of this is the Aftermath books and most of it deals with the Inhumans. While I liked them before reading this book, I ended up hating them and actually put this book aside for awhile, which is why it took so long to be done with it. The writers just made them so unlikable and Black Bolt doing something that seemed very out of character, it really turned me off. Why doesn't someone write a story about getting rid of the Alpha Primitives. We are talking about them being slaves, right? I believe it's even mentioned but then pushed aside. That's an aspect of them that really needs to be corrected.

Returning to the book, I enjoyed the second half which was primarily the Guardians of the Galaxy and the new Annihilators. There's a forced conflict between them and another team which was very unnecessary, but in the end, the second half of the book was good enough to override the first half.
The art is maybe a little above average but nothing exciting.

Overall, reading Annihilation, Annihilation Conquest, and War of Kings, then this, it's nice how it is at least related and connected, giving nice closure to most of it.

[Christian Zamora-Dahmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am deeply impressed at how the whole cosmic side of Marvel got built by Abnett and Lanning. It reminds me so much of the Legion of Super-Heroes, only harder to follow through all the different series. Thanks to Marvel Unlimited I read it in its entirety, otherwise it would have been impossible.

Anyway, it was a fantastic read. Lots of action, humor, drama, and lots of thickening plots. Maybe Annihilators was the only concept and stories that didn't leave such a big impact, but I don't mind. The overall quality of the saga was always at a very high point.

I would have loved if this creative direction had continued, but it looks like Abnett and Lanning moved into other projects.

[Jenelle Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many comics. I understand, at this point, why Glen started me in the 70's when I asked for Guardians comics. Would most of these comics make sense if I didn't know who Warlock/Magus was? Also, would I understand these comics if i didn't have all the various series? Could I read these without Nova?
I dunno, cause I didn't. But what a convoluted mess! Inhumans, Guardians, Nova, Son of Hulk...I dunno man. I can't believe I wouldn't have missed a bunch had Glen not already compiled them all for me.
And it is weird to read them all. Because I do not like them all. I adore the Guardians of the Galaxy. All of them, even Bug and Jack Flag. I like Nova, and his raptor friend is alright. But I could care less about the Inhumans...Ronan and Crystal are alright, and I like the Kree. But the rest of the inhumans..Blackbolt and Medusa and the rest? Meh. I like the Imperial Guard even less, especially cause I don't care for the Shi'ar. So I'm half and half? I keep reading for the Guardians...but I actively groan when I come to an Inhuman title lol.

Goddamn Adam Warlock. A blight on the universe, I tell you. Although the more of these I read, the more I'm convinced I'll hate the Endgame movie if it doesn't have Warlock. Warlock and Thanos go hand in hand...you really can't have one without the other. If Thanos is the big villain, Warlock is the one who beats him...and vice versa. YOU CAN'T HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER.
and I'm not even gonna talk about Captain Marvell...Because Phyla-Vell is amazing and movie makers miss an amazing opportunity when they didn't put her in the movies....

[Bram Ryckaert · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the major event that ends the War of Kings, RoK focuses on how each big faction deals with the Fault. So RoK is just a bunch of separate minis (once again) that lead to the major finale in Thanos Imperative. They're just okay mostly and Son of Hulk can easily be skipped as it has nothing to do with the heroes we usually follow. Thanos Imperative is quality throughout and gives this gigantic story a satisfying conclusion at least. For the first time since Annihilation (Conquest) I wasn't counting down issues until it was over, I was actually engaged in the story. It's what made me bump this volume to 3 stars instead of 2. I did not bother with Annihilators (yet) because Imperative felt like the perfect point to end it all.

I've now read everything from Annihilation to Imperative. I don't get how this run is so praised. Hickman runs laps around this with his Fantastic Four run alone. Too many disappointing tie-ins and drawn-out events. Highlights are most of the Nova and GotG series, Giffen's Star Lord mini and the Annihilation and Imperative main series. War of Kings is very disappointing for the amount of material you have to read through. Honestly I expected more out of all this.

[TK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the side plots bogged this one down for me but this is the Guardians of the Galaxy that I love!! Also I want all the Phyla-Vell things!!! Movie, Action Figure, Six Mediocre Spin-Offs, Etc....

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Elia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finishing up my trip through the Marvel Cosmic world with the DnA creative team. Fascinating that they can keep so many balls in the air and create massive epic stories, with a hint of gravitas and regality throughout, but they also can be overwhelmingly dull sometimes. The Guardians has always been the highlight and that continued here, in a really fun run that mixes a weird mix of misfits, it's the best of the source material here and I'd say James Gunn has made even better films than the good stuff that's here. The rest of it is middling, Nova's book gets particularly over-wordy, and there is a heavy reliance on a super dull mad man X-villain, Vulcan, who's the missing Summers brother and there's a lot of ancillary material to set him up. A lot of this stuff is fine. The War of Kings mini is pretty good, and The Thanos Imperative is a solid end to the whole thing. The Annilators series basically act as epilogues to this whole thing. Besides the Guardians, the only other character that comes off rather interesting is, surprisingly, Ronan the Accuser, and to a lesser degree The Gladiator of the Shiar Empire.