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Dreadstar #1-8
Dreadstar Omnibus Volume 1
Whether you're just discovering Vanth Dreadstar, or an avid collector in search of the definitive Dreadstar collection, this is for you.
511 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2019
2 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Jim Starlin
1,336 books444 followersJames P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: Personifications of Death appeared in his Captain Marvel series and in a fill-in story for Ghost Rider; Warlock commits suicide by killing his future self; and suicide is a theme in a story he plotted and drew for The Rampaging Hulk magazine.
In the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority. Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).
When Marvel Comics wished to use the name of Captain Marvel for a new, different character,[citation needed] Starlin was given the rare opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by the company itself. (
In the late 1980s, Starlin began working more for DC Comics, writing a number of Batman stories, including the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.-Nov. 1988), and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family", in Batman #426-429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), in which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation. For DC he created Hardcore Station.
In the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority. Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).
When Marvel Comics wished to use the name of Captain Marvel for a new, different character,[citation needed] Starlin was given the rare opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by the company itself. (
In the late 1980s, Starlin began working more for DC Comics, writing a number of Batman stories, including the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.-Nov. 1988), and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family", in Batman #426-429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), in which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation. For DC he created Hardcore Station.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 24, 2023
Epic Illustrated, The Metamorphosis Odyssey, The Price, Vanth Dreadstar, Epic Comics
. These words, these names, these stories - eventually led to one of my favorite comics ever published by Marvel: Dreadstar. This collection contains all those early tales and it is MAGNIFICENT.
The Metamorphosis Odyssey ran through the early issues of Marvel’s answer to Heavy Metal, an anthology title called: Epic Illustrated. And it was a wonderful series. Lots of diverse talent, diverse stories, more mature in content than regular Marvel titles were. It was the perfect place to launch the epic of Vanth Dreadstar. The series that saw his birth wasn’t necessarily about him though, The Metamorphosis Odyssey was really about endings. And then about the start of Vanth. But primarily about endings. Here we witness Jim Starlin letting loose on all the cosmic shenanigans that he’d kept bottled up inside while working on characters like Captain Marvel and Warlock. Gorgeous and amazing stuff.
The Price - This was originally published as a graphic novel by Eclipse, and later reprinted by Marvel’s Epic Comics as Dreadstar Annual #1, and while it does continue the story begun in The Metamorphosis Odyssey, it doesn’t appear that why until the very end. This story puts a new character in the spotlight and Syzygy is a new and unique character indeed. This narrative provides his backstory, his origin if you like, and his first meeting with Vanth Dreadstar. There may be touches of Doctor Strange in these pages, but this tale goes into far darker corners of the human soul than Doctor Strange could even imagine.
Dreadstar (Marvel Graphic Novel #3) - This story deals with Vanth’s transition from being Aknaton’s muscle to the deadliest man in the galaxy. This is a well developed story that offers the costs that Vanth has had to pay over the years. In a word: Wonderful.
Epic Illustrated #15 - This appeared as a teaser of sorts for the upcoming on-going Dreadstar series. It feels like an issue #0 as it just recaps the events leading up to this point, and sets things up for what is to come, there’s actually a pretty thin story for this particular installment. But it still does a nice job doing what it needs to do.
Dreadstar #1-8 - This new on-going series introduces the reader to Dreadstar & Company - aka Vanth Dreadstar, Syzygy Darklock, Willow, Oedi and Skeevo. Freedom fighters in some distant future, in some distant galaxy … far, far away. And Dreadstar in one of the best space opera stories ever published in the sequential art form. This volume culminates with the revelation of Plan M and how Dreadstar and Company plan to free their galaxy from both The Monarchy and the Instrumentality. But it also sets up the next big mystery with the menace of Z. If you’re a fan of cosmic level superhero sagas, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Prayer - Included as a bonus feature for this volume. It’s an interesting short piece by Starlin, but doesn’t actually have any connection to Dreadstar.
The Metamorphosis Odyssey ran through the early issues of Marvel’s answer to Heavy Metal, an anthology title called: Epic Illustrated. And it was a wonderful series. Lots of diverse talent, diverse stories, more mature in content than regular Marvel titles were. It was the perfect place to launch the epic of Vanth Dreadstar. The series that saw his birth wasn’t necessarily about him though, The Metamorphosis Odyssey was really about endings. And then about the start of Vanth. But primarily about endings. Here we witness Jim Starlin letting loose on all the cosmic shenanigans that he’d kept bottled up inside while working on characters like Captain Marvel and Warlock. Gorgeous and amazing stuff.
The Price - This was originally published as a graphic novel by Eclipse, and later reprinted by Marvel’s Epic Comics as Dreadstar Annual #1, and while it does continue the story begun in The Metamorphosis Odyssey, it doesn’t appear that why until the very end. This story puts a new character in the spotlight and Syzygy is a new and unique character indeed. This narrative provides his backstory, his origin if you like, and his first meeting with Vanth Dreadstar. There may be touches of Doctor Strange in these pages, but this tale goes into far darker corners of the human soul than Doctor Strange could even imagine.
Dreadstar (Marvel Graphic Novel #3) - This story deals with Vanth’s transition from being Aknaton’s muscle to the deadliest man in the galaxy. This is a well developed story that offers the costs that Vanth has had to pay over the years. In a word: Wonderful.
Epic Illustrated #15 - This appeared as a teaser of sorts for the upcoming on-going Dreadstar series. It feels like an issue #0 as it just recaps the events leading up to this point, and sets things up for what is to come, there’s actually a pretty thin story for this particular installment. But it still does a nice job doing what it needs to do.
Dreadstar #1-8 - This new on-going series introduces the reader to Dreadstar & Company - aka Vanth Dreadstar, Syzygy Darklock, Willow, Oedi and Skeevo. Freedom fighters in some distant future, in some distant galaxy … far, far away. And Dreadstar in one of the best space opera stories ever published in the sequential art form. This volume culminates with the revelation of Plan M and how Dreadstar and Company plan to free their galaxy from both The Monarchy and the Instrumentality. But it also sets up the next big mystery with the menace of Z. If you’re a fan of cosmic level superhero sagas, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Prayer - Included as a bonus feature for this volume. It’s an interesting short piece by Starlin, but doesn’t actually have any connection to Dreadstar.
May 25, 2022
Great cosmic weirdness.
It'd be a perfect book, BUT because of the caprices of publishers at the time, we've got a few issues here, a few there, and they have to re-tread a lot of what is, admittedly, a complicated story before things settle into a more regular comic book format. It feels like it's formatted like this for completionists, but maybe the rest of us could get a version that omits all that (sort of how I always think they should put out a version of Harry Potter meant to be read straight through, so you don't have to remind us how Quidditch works and shit like that every time).
The initial issues are in black and white and still some of the best art I've ever seen in comics.
Okay, it's a little weird that the character is named "Vanth." It sounds like someone trying to say "Vance" with their tongue between their teeth, so it's kind of goofy. But then his last name IS Dreadstar, so I guess that probably makes up for it. If your first name is Killmeister, your first name can be Lenny, right? If your last name is Danzig, your first name can be Glenn?
I do love that an evil government tried to breed the ultimate warriors by combining cats and humans, and instead ended up with terrible warriors. Cats gonna cat, and the surest way to make sure your cat doesn't become a ruthless killer is to encourage him to do be one. Put a cat brain on a warrior's body, shove a sword and a gun in his paws, and he'll be like, "Eh, maybe I'd like farming," a thing cats have NEVER done or shown interest in EVER. That's what you get for screwing around with cats.
The skull face robot man is the most metal thing ever. His friendly team banter, on getting a friendly ribbing from a team member, is like, "I'm going to do medical experiments on him one day..." That shit's hilarious. Really ramping it up from 0 to 160 there. Someone says something about you being bald, and you are like, "I'm going to open up your body cavity and poke around for the sheer pleasure of it." And this is your friend.
It'd be a perfect book, BUT because of the caprices of publishers at the time, we've got a few issues here, a few there, and they have to re-tread a lot of what is, admittedly, a complicated story before things settle into a more regular comic book format. It feels like it's formatted like this for completionists, but maybe the rest of us could get a version that omits all that (sort of how I always think they should put out a version of Harry Potter meant to be read straight through, so you don't have to remind us how Quidditch works and shit like that every time).
The initial issues are in black and white and still some of the best art I've ever seen in comics.
Okay, it's a little weird that the character is named "Vanth." It sounds like someone trying to say "Vance" with their tongue between their teeth, so it's kind of goofy. But then his last name IS Dreadstar, so I guess that probably makes up for it. If your first name is Killmeister, your first name can be Lenny, right? If your last name is Danzig, your first name can be Glenn?
I do love that an evil government tried to breed the ultimate warriors by combining cats and humans, and instead ended up with terrible warriors. Cats gonna cat, and the surest way to make sure your cat doesn't become a ruthless killer is to encourage him to do be one. Put a cat brain on a warrior's body, shove a sword and a gun in his paws, and he'll be like, "Eh, maybe I'd like farming," a thing cats have NEVER done or shown interest in EVER. That's what you get for screwing around with cats.
The skull face robot man is the most metal thing ever. His friendly team banter, on getting a friendly ribbing from a team member, is like, "I'm going to do medical experiments on him one day..." That shit's hilarious. Really ramping it up from 0 to 160 there. Someone says something about you being bald, and you are like, "I'm going to open up your body cavity and poke around for the sheer pleasure of it." And this is your friend.
April 2, 2020
This review refers to the Kickstarter Reward ebook.
I absolutely loved the Dreadstar series when in first came out. I can't be sure without checking the long boxes, but I'm pretty sure that I still have my original copies.
I say that to let you know that this review may be tinged slightly by nostalgia. While Dreadstar is a very fun series, it does suffer from some problems associated with comics of the time. We've got characters talking to themselves so the reader knows what is going on, some repetitive explaining of what happened earlier (necessitated by the publication history).
All that being said, Dreadstar is a lot of fun and absolutely beautifully illustrated. This Omnibus edition has not part of the original run, but the preceding material as well. We get to see what shaped Dreadstar into the person he is, watch him recruited by Darklock, see him gather his crew, and all the shenanigans associated with them.
I absolutely loved the Dreadstar series when in first came out. I can't be sure without checking the long boxes, but I'm pretty sure that I still have my original copies.
I say that to let you know that this review may be tinged slightly by nostalgia. While Dreadstar is a very fun series, it does suffer from some problems associated with comics of the time. We've got characters talking to themselves so the reader knows what is going on, some repetitive explaining of what happened earlier (necessitated by the publication history).
All that being said, Dreadstar is a lot of fun and absolutely beautifully illustrated. This Omnibus edition has not part of the original run, but the preceding material as well. We get to see what shaped Dreadstar into the person he is, watch him recruited by Darklock, see him gather his crew, and all the shenanigans associated with them.
November 24, 2025
A few years back I had gotten another "Dreadstar omnibus" but this one (printed in softcover for the first time this year) was far superior to that one.
I will start this review by saying the Dreadstar saga is one of my top ten best comic book series of all time. I will admit I am a child of the 80's so many on that list are comics I read when I was most impressionable (e.g. Elfquest, Cerebus (early stuff only), X-Men (Claremont/Byrne), Teen Titans (Wolfman/Perez)) but rereading these stories now I still love them. The art, the characters, the plot, the drama, the touches of humour still make me happy today. I do understand that to a modern reader the stories might seem a little hurried and the art a little flat but to me the writing was perfect and the art done by a master of his craft.
This collection, specifically, was a joy to get. It contained the earliest adventures of Dreadstar I had never read before. The ones that started in black and white (my god the art was gorgeous) in a magazine called Epic Illustrated (can we get a collection of all those anthology stories?). It was a true thrill to finally read those stories in full, because Starlin does summarize that store in later issues of Dreadstar so I had gotten the condensed version already. We then get the Price which focuses on Syzygy Darklord - a key member of the Dreadstar team - we get the original Dreadstar Graphic novel - then we get 8 issues of the actual Dreadstar series. In summary, it is a complete collection of ALL the Dreadstar stories in a way my other Omnibus did NOT have.
Space opera is not for everyone but I feel it has never been done better in comic book form. Starlin does a masterful job of making each comic story episodic while still advancing the larger epic narrative. To me, that is perfection. Too many epics these days need to be read all at once for the stories to make sense (i.e. there are no episodes - only the soap opera). Not so here. I still remember the issue where a whole city was nuked...when Oedi and Skeeve had to save the day....when Willow's past was revealed. It hit harder because Starlin was able to craft these stories within "The Story".
Anyway - having it in this format - affordable - wonderful printing - comprehensive. I couldn't love this book any more than I do.
I will start this review by saying the Dreadstar saga is one of my top ten best comic book series of all time. I will admit I am a child of the 80's so many on that list are comics I read when I was most impressionable (e.g. Elfquest, Cerebus (early stuff only), X-Men (Claremont/Byrne), Teen Titans (Wolfman/Perez)) but rereading these stories now I still love them. The art, the characters, the plot, the drama, the touches of humour still make me happy today. I do understand that to a modern reader the stories might seem a little hurried and the art a little flat but to me the writing was perfect and the art done by a master of his craft.
This collection, specifically, was a joy to get. It contained the earliest adventures of Dreadstar I had never read before. The ones that started in black and white (my god the art was gorgeous) in a magazine called Epic Illustrated (can we get a collection of all those anthology stories?). It was a true thrill to finally read those stories in full, because Starlin does summarize that store in later issues of Dreadstar so I had gotten the condensed version already. We then get the Price which focuses on Syzygy Darklord - a key member of the Dreadstar team - we get the original Dreadstar Graphic novel - then we get 8 issues of the actual Dreadstar series. In summary, it is a complete collection of ALL the Dreadstar stories in a way my other Omnibus did NOT have.
Space opera is not for everyone but I feel it has never been done better in comic book form. Starlin does a masterful job of making each comic story episodic while still advancing the larger epic narrative. To me, that is perfection. Too many epics these days need to be read all at once for the stories to make sense (i.e. there are no episodes - only the soap opera). Not so here. I still remember the issue where a whole city was nuked...when Oedi and Skeeve had to save the day....when Willow's past was revealed. It hit harder because Starlin was able to craft these stories within "The Story".
Anyway - having it in this format - affordable - wonderful printing - comprehensive. I couldn't love this book any more than I do.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews