Forbidden Planet Marvel Comics Review 2026: Four Years of Ordering From the UK’s Biggest Comic Shop

I’ve been ordering Marvel comics from Forbidden Planet for about four years now. That’s roughly £2,400 in receipts I dug up before writing this — most of it omnibuses and a few embarrassing impulse-buy variant covers I do not regret. Here is what I have actually learned about buying Marvel from them, after the honeymoon period wore off and I started paying attention to the things that matter when you are trying to build a collection.

Why I started buying there instead of Amazon

The honest answer is that Amazon kept losing my pre-orders. Marvel omnibuses and oversized hardcovers tend to print in limited quantities, and Amazon’s “we’ll find you a copy eventually” approach falls apart the moment a book has a one-month sell-through window. I had three Hickman X-Men hardcovers quietly vanish from my orders in 2024 before I made the switch.

Forbidden Planet does something Amazon does not: they actually order the books. When you pre-order a comic from them, that copy is allocated to your name at the time you place the order. If the print run sells out, you still get yours. If the price jumps before street date, you still pay what you locked in. This sounds basic. Outside of dedicated comic shops, it is no longer how this industry works.

The Marvel catalog, honestly assessed

The Marvel section at Forbidden Planet is genuinely deep. I do not mean “Avengers Vol. 1 to 4 in stock” deep — I mean the kind of selection where you can build a complete Krakoa-era X-Men collection in oversized hardcover without resorting to eBay scalpers. They stock the Epic Collections, the King-Size Hardcovers, the Modern Era omnibuses, the True Believer reprints, and the full Marvel Masterworks line. They get the variant covers a week before the local shops in most cases. They stock the Panini UK imports that the US site simply does not carry.

Where they specifically shine:

• Omnibuses and oversized hardcovers. Reliably in stock at RRP — none of the eBay markup nonsense.
• Recent runs in trade paperback. Daredevil, Immortal Hulk, X-Men, Spider-Man backlists are kept complete.
• Variant covers. Allocated per-customer through their subscription system, so you don’t need to be at the screen at 9am sharp.
• Back issues. This is the weakest part of the catalog — for individual older floppies you are still better served by eBay or a specialised dealer.

Pricing — the honest comparison

This is the part most reviews skip. Forbidden Planet is not Amazon. They list at recommended retail price. For new releases, expect to pay roughly the same as a comparable US-based specialty shop after exchange rates. Where they win is on the books Amazon underprices below cost (you’ll save £2–3 on a £35 hardcover at Amazon, if you’re lucky) but cannot consistently supply.

The loyalty program is the equaliser. After your first £150 of orders you unlock the 10% off VIP discount, which stacks with their seasonal sales. I save around £40–60 per quarter just from the stacked discount alone. The break-even versus Amazon usually arrives by the second order.

For US buyers, the math is harder. Shipping to the States runs $20–35 depending on weight. For omnibuses and oversized hardcovers it is still cheaper than buying through US specialty retailers, because the books themselves are priced lower at source. For single issues and trade paperbacks, you are paying for the experience rather than for the price.

Shipping and packaging

UK shipping is fast (next-day delivery to most postcodes if you order before noon) and the packaging is genuinely good. Corner protectors on every hardcover, double-walled boxes, and never a damaged book in four years of ordering. I have had two damaged spines across more than 90 orders, both replaced within a week of reporting.

International shipping is more variable. EU orders go through their European fulfilment partner and arrive in 5–10 working days. US orders take 7–14 days. Tracking is provided on everything. Customs duties are on the buyer outside the UK.

Pre-orders and variants

This is the killer feature for any serious Marvel collector. You can pre-order books months ahead of street date, the price is locked at the point of order, and they will hold your copy at street date if you want to consolidate with other orders to save on shipping.

Variant covers are allocated rather than first-come-first-served. If you have an active subscription account, you get variant covers at RRP without queueing. If you do not, you wait in the 9am scramble on the day the variant goes live. The subscription is worth setting up if you care about covers — it costs nothing to maintain, and it pays for itself the first time you avoid bidding on eBay for a 1:25 retailer incentive.

Where Forbidden Planet falls short

Three real problems I have run into:

• The website occasionally hangs on baskets of 20+ items. I have had to split a big pre-order into two checkouts more than once.
• Search is mediocre. Finding a specific issue number in a long-running series usually requires going through the publisher page rather than the search bar.
• Restocks on hot books are slow. If something explodes — YouTuber covered it, key issue revelation, MCU announcement — it can take 4–6 weeks for them to get more in.

None of these are dealbreakers. All of them are real.

Who should buy from here

If you are based in the UK or EU and you collect Marvel in any form — single issues, trades, omnibuses, variants — Forbidden Planet should be your first stop. The catalog depth and the pre-order reliability are the closest thing to a guarantee you’ll get in this industry.

If you are based in the US and you are after Marvel omnibuses or specific UK-print imports, the shipping math still works in their favour for orders above $80. For everyday single-issue collecting, stick with your local shop or Midtown.

If you’re ready to browse the catalog, head over to the Forbidden Planet Marvel section here. New stock lands every Wednesday; the omnibus and oversized hardcover restocks tend to hit on Fridays.