The “reprinted at last” is me being funny.

Okay, due to popular demand, given the number of emails, DMs, and “@s” on Bluesky I’ve received, I should mention this forthcoming Swamp Thing Dark Genesis” Omnibus set, shipping in…egads, November? Well, that’ll give everyone time to save their pennies for it, since it retails for a mighty $150.

Oh, what does it include, you may ask. I may answer, by telling you that it includes

• House of Secrets #92, reprinted at last
• all 24 issues of the original 1970s Swamp Thing run
• the first 15 issues of the early 1980s Saga of the Swamp Thing
• the annual for that series — that’s the adaptation of the first movie, son, with an early Mark Texeira art job!
• the two Brave and the Bold team-ups with Batman (#122 and #176)
• DC Comics Presents #8 with Superman
• Challengers of the Unknown #81-#87 (Swampy himself doesn’t pop up ’til #82, but #81 kicks off the story, and includes an old adversary of his)
• House of Secrets #140, with the beginning of the aborted “Patchwork Man” serial, featuring the character from early in the Swamp Thing run
• Phantom Stranger #14, another swamp monster (or…is it?) story by Swampy’s co-creator Len Wein, which came out around the same time as House of Secrets #92 — not actually Swamp Thing, but does have a cool Neal Adams cover

And that’s not all, friends! Included is the restored unpublished issue #25 from the original series, most of the pages of which were unearthed a while back. It’ll be nice to see this issue properly finished (and with the missing page replaced with new art). Finally, the Swamp Thing vs. Hawkman battle we’ve been waiting for! (I mean, aside from the one we got later during Alan Moore’s run.)

We’re also getting a translated version of the Patchwork Man story that would have been in House of Secrets #141, but for some reason was bumped, and only appeared in a foreign edition. Boy, it’s going to be nice to have all this stuff in one place.

I do notice they don’t include Super Friends #28, which technically is a Swamp Thing cameo, but really it’s just a guy in a Swamp Thing costume magically turned into the muck-encrusted mockery, so I guess it doesn’t count.

Oh, and there’s “extensive essays and never-before-seen scripts, art, and more!” so all right already, stop twisting my arm.

This is going to be one of the “new-style” omnibuses, like we saw with the Mike Grell’s Warlord volume we saw recently. Printed on what DC is calling “period-appropriate paper,” so it won’t be the slick fancy stuff. It’ll likely be the nice, white paper from the Warlord book, which means these new omnibuses will be shockingly light, since this paper isn’t nearly as heavy. We’re supposed to be getting the “original coloring,” too, which will likely look better, or more “authentic,” on this paper than the glossy stuff.

We’ll know for sure in about eight months once we have these in our hands. But it’s my understanding that the folks in charge of this, and the future Alan Moore Swamp Thing omnibuses are taking great care in producing these, and I’m hoping these will look as nice as realistically possible. I’ve also had some…assurances that some of the printing problems with previous reprints of the Moore run (like the missing caption, or the missing art) will be addressed.

Am I getting it? Yes, of course I am, at the very least I need what has got to be reprint #25 of House of Secrets #92.

I’m wondering if the forthcoming facsimile edition of Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 (an issue with problems in the reprinting, as linked above), will function as a preview of what the omnibuses will look like? Or is it just a rushed out reprint to take adavtage of the current facsimile trend?