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Marvel Knights: Yellow, Blue, Gray & White #1-4

Marvel Knights: Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale: Yellow, Blue, Gray & White Omnibus

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All four of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's classic "color" masterpieces in one atmospheric hardcover! Blind acrobat Daredevil was inspired to heroism by the example of his prizefighter father - but Matt Murdock is a young man in love with Karen Page. Relive Daredevil's heartwarming, heartbreaking debut! Then, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy want to spend the rest of their lives together - but first, Spider-Man must run a gauntlet of his greatest foes. No matter how powerful the Incredible Hulk becomes, his heart can still be shattered by Betty Ross - the daughter of his greatest enemy! And Captain America battles beside his best friend Bucky behind enemy lines in World War II! Touching and insightful tales of super heroism from an Eisner Award-winning team!

COLLECTING: DAREDEVIL: YELLOW 1-6, SPIDER-MAN: BLUE 1-6, HULK: GRAY 1-6, CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE 0-5

664 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2018

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About the author

Jeph Loeb

1,571 books1,389 followers
Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.

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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Lukas Sumper.
133 reviews29 followers
March 20, 2019
I got this book mainly because I absolutley adored Jeph's The long halloween and I wanted to see how he does at Marvel. Paired up again with Tim Sale's art was also another reason why this book, so this was literally a no-brainer to get. Without getting into spoilers these stories are revolving around the love interest's of these four heroes, which in concept was a great idea.

But the biggest problem I had with this omnibus is Jeph Loeb's way of writing female characters, and considering how this focused on the romantic aspect of their lifes, we were off to a bad start. Karen Page was just a Damsel in Distress, but other writers brought much more to her than just that, yes I could live with that but that was only the start. (On a side note my girlfriend was not okay with it.)

In Spiderman Blue - Gwen Stacy / Mary Jane Watson are running around as if they are attention seeking narcissists, with terribly cheesy onliners like "Face it tiger, you just hit the Jackpot!" (first thing she says to Peter at their first meeting). The only way I can justify reading that (still doesn't mean that I like it) is the time its set in, back then some women liked it being cat called, and even then I can't see these 2 behaving like this. Its incredibly prepubescently written and definitely not what I've expected. The only thing that holds me back giving this 2 stars is the interesting plot, the interesting use of the villains and Sale's art, here I see again why I like Loebs writing so much.

In the third story - Hulk Gray our female side character Betty isn't written nearly as badly and also sticks closest to her origins, which makes it the best story by far in my opinion. Better late than never.

So if you're expecting complex written and dignified female characters, then this is the wrong book. Yes its sad considering how much I love Loebs other works, but I've got to be honest about this so I give it a 3,5* out of 5 for the omnibus.
Profile Image for Lashaan Balasingam.
1,499 reviews4,622 followers
October 26, 2021


You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

Where love can thaw through the coldest of hearts, it can also break the toughest of them all into the tiniest of pieces. For some beloved heroes, it is through love that they discover their darkest regrets and their greatest callings. Despite the incredible emotional toll that they must carry, it is these very life-defining stories that bring them to make the toughest decisions in their lives. And sometimes, all they can do is remember these stories to their graves, or share them with those who are willing to listen. Collecting all four colour stories by the Eisner award-winning duo of writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale, this omnibus presents fans with a stunning and complete look at four of Marvel’s greatest heroes recounting a significant loss early in their days of vigilantism. This omnibus collects Daredevil: Yellow #1-6, Spider-Man: Blue #1-6, Hulk: Gray #1-6, and Captain America: White #1-6.

What is Marvel Knights: Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale: Yellow, Blue, Gray & White Omnibus about? In Daredevil: Yellow, Matthew Murdock recounts the tragic events that culminate in the astonishing arrival of Hell’s Kitchen’s paramount hero as he falls in love with the mesmerizing Karen Page. In Spider-Man: Blue, Peter Parker reminisces the early days when he fell in love with Gwen Stacy only to realize what he would later never get to have with her. In Hulk: Gray, Bruce Banner explains the tragedy that wasn’t just his transformation but his realization that Betty Ross, daughter of his greatest rival, would be the only person to break the Incredible Hulk. In Captain America: White, Steve Rogers goes down memory lane to share his early adventures with his partner in crime Bucky Barnes.

Brilliantly revisiting the early days of superheroism of these iconic characters, writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale excel in delivering a cohesive selection of tragic chapters in the lives of four heroes that connect together through their exploration of love and loss. With symbolic use of specific colours that depict emotional trauma and moral ambiguity, the story brilliantly puts forth the sheer swagger of these heroes, whether it is through their illustrious dialogue or their impressive charm. While romance and tragedy are key ingredients to these stories, notably bringing out the most vulnerable moments in their life, they also include a fair proportion of action and adventure that depict these characters’ unique skillset, whether it may be their acrobatic skills or their brute strength. While some stories convey their emotional punch with much more efficiency, others do struggle to find their footing, but all succeed in telling a story that highlights the power of love and the burden of loss.

Those familiar with artist Tim Sale’s work will not be surprised by his one-of-a-kind style in these stories and will be impressed by the tone and emotion he is able to convey throughout each of them. While most of his design works wonderfully with writer Jeph Loeb’s story and ideas, there are instances where the story seems to simply fit perfectly with his artistic vision, allowing panels to convey far more than it could’ve without the words to embellish the moment with poetry and power. The occasional splash pages, especially to emphasize certain love interests or costumed vigilantism, make for spectacular moments as well. The colouring also gives the story an additional layer of complexity in terms of narrative depth, as previously mentioned in terms of symbolism, but also allows for excellent atmospheric tone and mood.

Marvel Knights: Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale: Yellow, Blue, Gray & White Omnibus is a wonderful collection of emotional stories centered around loss and love and told by Daredevil, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Captain America.

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
Profile Image for Graham Barrett.
1,387 reviews5 followers
December 17, 2024
Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are a comic book duo that have made some fantastic comics like “Batman The Long Halloween” (my favorite Batman comic) and “Daredevil: Yellow”. The latter was part of the “Colors” series that examines 4 Marvel superheroes (Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Hulk, and Captain America) in Loeb’s and Sale’s unique style. As I enjoyed Yellow already, I was eager to check out the whole collection. By and large, Loeb and Sale deliver with each of these stories.

“Daredevil: Yellow” -



My thoughts haven’t changed too much about Daredevil: Yellow following the reread. Back then, I liked Sale’s art and I thought it was a good story even if I didn’t know too much about Daredevil lore at that point. Now that I have, I did get more of an appreciation for Matt’s relationship for not only Karen but for Foggy as well during this reread. This made the framing device of Matt writing to a deceased Karen all the more poignant. Beyond that I appreciated getting a non-Frank Miller expansion/reimagining of Daredevil’s early days. In terms of individual moments, I loved the scene of Matt standing on top of the Empire State Building listening to the city before jumping into action to save Karen. In general this set the bar for the rest of the collection

“Spider-Man: Blue” -



While I hadn’t read this one like Daredevil’s, I had familiarity with it mostly because it's a bit like Loeb & Sale’s reimagining of key moments in early Spider-Man history (i.e., the iconic first meeting with MJ). Truthfully most of the story I felt like was “just okay”, just a way to show these moments/characters in Sale’s art style. But then Loeb brought it (the story in the past and the framing device of Peter looking back on his time with Gwen Stacy) together absolutely beautifully. It really underscored the thematic intention of the overarching theme of the series (at least for Matt and Peter) and did a better job than “Yellow” IMO.

“Hulk: Gray” -



Of the four heroes Loeb and Sale tackle in this series, Hulk’s the only one I’m not overly familiar with beyond the basics of his character/origin story. So I did think I wasn’t getting too much out of some of the characters I was unfamiliar with like the Rosses and Rick Jones like I had with the other miniseries in this collection. That said, I still got quite a bit out of the story, more so than I thought I would have. The bits about Bruce discussing the Hulk were heartbreaking, particularly with the conclusions he draws between Betty’s love for him (and even The Hulk) and her father who is abusive to Betty in his own way, making Bruce wonder if her love for him/The Hulk is similar to her relation with Thunderbolt. Beyond the themes, as before there’s some stunning Sale art here, maybe more so because he plays around with The Hulk’s size and perspective. It was also wild seeing OG golden Iron Man in this style too. Hulk: Gray is imperfect but as my first real look at The Hulk’s classic origin story I did enjoy it for what it was.

“Captain America: White” -



This is the only real misfire of Loeb and Sale’s collection. There’s nothing absolutely horrible about it and I did think the change to looking at platonic love that Cap and Bucky share (although I’m sure plenty of shippers will say its another type of love). But this honestly felt the most inconsequential of the four stories even if it did try to emphasize the connection between the two. But it otherwise felt like just another story from the Golden-Silver Age of Marvel even if it tried to make this Cap’s first meeting with Nick Fury. Otherwise it was inconsequential with Sale’s contribution carrying the load (I particularly liked his design for The Red Skull).

Minus a disappointing turn with Captain America, this collection is otherwise a pretty great look/reimagining at Marvel heroes and an evaluation of their relationships with some of their most important loves and the myriad of ways that reflects back on them. Loeb’s stories range from fine to good but its really Tim Sale that makes this collection worth check Through “The Long Halloween” I got to see Sale’s take on classic Batman characters and loved that and I loved seeing his take on Silver Age Marvel characters in this collection. In general if you’re a fan of Loeb and Sale’s previous work do yourself a favor and check this out, the strengths far outnumber the weaknesses.
Profile Image for Jacob A. Mirallegro.
237 reviews1 follower
July 9, 2020
All these books together add up to like a 3.5(maybe a little lower?) but I'm going to talk about each individually because they aren't connected aside from the obvious themes of love and loss and stuff and the color representations for each book.

Daredevil Yellow: this felt like a very small book, which isn't necessarily bad but when it came down to it I didn't have much to think about it. Each issue didn't feel super connected and they spent a lot less time on Karen Page as a character than I would've expected. Matt Hollingsworth's digital water colors were really nice and made this artwork feel moody in a great way. Yellow for me represented bravery or more the discovery and triumph of achieving bravery. This being for "the man without fear" for well but I didn't like the dialogue about his yellow suit at the end.

Spider-Man Blue: this is easily my favorite of the four and its also the only one I've previously read but it's such an achievement in my opinion. It captures the feel of that late 60s/70s Stan Lee writing as well as the John Ramita Sr. artwork and it's so cool. (I have a lot of nostalgia to the Lee era Spider-Man so I might be a bit biased lol.) The dialogue can feel clunky or on the nose but also that's kinda how comics were written back then so I'm honestly fine with it. It captured the way death changes you and your emotions so well. MJ being there at the very end is so beautiful and I love how they captured Peter's love for her and Gwen. This volume has the most emotion to it and the ending almost brings me to tears every time. The metaphorical meaning of blue was made really obvious at the end but it still felt like the culmination of the book and I liked it.

Hulk Gray: I liked this one quite a bit too. Hollingsworth comes back to do the colors but it's still so distinct and visually really fitting for the Hulk. This volume had the most continuation from issue to issue which was enjoyable but what it built up to wasn't that satisfying and we didn't really get enough attention on Betty interacting with Bruce. The covers were another huge highlight for this, they're all so disjointed, out of focus, and have so much raw anger and emotion (just like the Hulk) it's incredible. Gray representing that there is an in between of good and evil in this world worked well for a Hulk book and again the emotional impact of such was really great.

Captain America White: this was definitely my least favorite. The art was weak which is disappointing because Dave Stewart is such a top dog colorist. Instead of capturing the feel of that era's comics like Spider-Man Blue they go more for capturing that mood of war in the 40s but it just didn't work for me. I liked that the focus was on a the loss of a best friend as opposed to love interest lile the previous volumes. This gave attention on how many forms of love their are and loving someone isn't inherently romantic. When I think of why this color was White I think of like rebirth/becoming anew, but it isn't really represented well here. Like both Cap and Bucky had to be reborn into their superhero identities but that wasn't a huge focus so I don't really know why it's White.
Profile Image for Rumi Bossche.
1,115 reviews17 followers
September 10, 2023
One of the very best hardcovers that Marvel has out there.

The so called "color" series from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is a fantastic one. These guys did some of the very Best Batman stories and my all time favorite,  Batman The Long Halloween. This hardcover collects four mini series all based on a color, Daredevil Yellow focuses on some of the earlier DD stories hence the yellow from Matts suit. Spider-Man Blue is a love story and a fantastic one at that. Hulk Grey and Captain America White are also early stories that suit Tim Sale's artwork really well. The visuals are something else and really among the very best Sale has done. And the scripts from Loeb are great aswell, this is a great hardcover for seasoned fans and newbies alike. All stories have some extra's sketches and stories about how this came to be. Cant recommend this one enough.
Profile Image for Pruett.
287 reviews
February 4, 2024
Spider-Man: Blue, Daredevil: Yellow, and Hulk: Gray are all miles ahead of Captain America: White!

Beautiful art book. Characterizations can be lacking sometimes, but Tim Sale did this better than almost anyone in the biz.
Profile Image for Joe.
1,209 reviews27 followers
September 16, 2024
A great collection of stories of Daredevil, Spiderman, Hulk, and Captain America. It has the heroes revisiting some of their early adventures in a wistful way. The artwork is amazing and the stories are solid. A must read.
Profile Image for Martin Nachev.
22 reviews28 followers
August 7, 2018
All four stories are from early in each heroes' respective career and revolve around them having lost their greatest love:
- For Daredevil it's Karen Page
- For Spider-man it's Gwen Stacy
- For Hulk it's Betty Ross
- For Captain America it's ... Bucky

The Hulk story was surprisingly my favorite one and I really enjoyed the bittersweet Spider-man story. But the quality of the entire collection is brought down by the other two, with the Daredevil one being "just ok" and the Captain America one being the weakest of the four.
Profile Image for Matthew WK.
537 reviews5 followers
August 5, 2022
I'm not sure if the complete omnibus is 5 stars, but this is perhaps my favorite omni. It's dripping with emotion - grief, hope, love, loss - Sale and Loeb are incredible as a team. Daredevil Yellow and Hulk Gray are 5 stars, Captain America White 4.5, and Spider-Man Blue 4. This is one that I'll own until I die and I'll return to again and again.
Profile Image for Sean Scott.
270 reviews1 follower
December 16, 2022
If Hulk and Cap bring the average down, Daredevil and Spider-Man alone bring it right back up. I should give this 4 stars but I’m a sucker for Sale’s art. Loeb’s voice over dialogue can sometimes wear thin on me, in Hulk Yellow it does. And while Cap White is light, it’s also very chewable. Daredevil Yellow is beautiful and Spider-Man Blue really did make me cry. It’s amazing how much influence this series had as a sort of modern retelling or classic character moments. A fantastic wholesome series.
Profile Image for MannyLikesPie.
331 reviews
May 31, 2025
3.5 Started raining hard after finishing blue, I like them all. I would do spider-man & hulk tie for best, cap next, and daredevil last. Daredevil best after finishing Kevin smith daredevil. Hulk after peter david run, rip. Spider after Gwen death, and cap general story. 4 different stories in one omnibus which is about each character dealing with a death in their lives. Read whichever character you like, don’t need any reading beforehand. They’re all 6 issues long, the art is lovely as always
Profile Image for Dean.
1,056 reviews5 followers
March 2, 2024
A very good collection of this team.
Blue is the standout but the others are very good.
Profile Image for Jon.
84 reviews1 follower
November 15, 2024
Amazing figure and perspective work with the art, but despite the more mature subject matter, could have still used a better writer to really bring out what Tim Sale is capable of.
Profile Image for Declan O'Keeffe.
391 reviews2 followers
January 5, 2025
What do Daredevil, Spider-man, Hulk, and Captain America have in common?

Dead friends and Jeph Loeb making us cry over them while Tim Sale draws beautiful artwork.
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