Swamp Thing: The New 52 Omnibus

Swamp Thing by Nancy A. Collins Omnibus collects the acclaimed horror-novelist's run on the character, the first extended female-authored Swamp Thing, following the legendary tenures of Alan Moore and Rick Veitch. Collins steers the title into darker Southern-gothic territory: Swamp Thing and Abby's family life, ecological menace and the return of old enemies like Anton Arcane. A key early-Vertigo horror chapter, collected complete with bonus material including the unpublished "Arcane Blood" proposal. Art by Phil Hester, Scot Eaton and Russ Braun.

The Swamp Thing by Ram V & Mike Perkins Omnibus collects the acclaimed run that introduced Levi Kamei, a new Swamp Thing caught between the Green and a body that keeps changing without his consent. Ram V writes ecological horror with a migrant's perspective on belonging, and Mike Perkins draws plant matter as something genuinely alien. Multiple Eisner nominations and one of DC's best-reviewed recent series.

Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis Omnibus collects the original Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson run that created the character, plus the material that followed before Alan Moore arrived. Wrightson's swamp is one of the most beautiful things ever drawn in a mainstream comic.

Swamp Thing by Len Wein and Kelley Jones: Deluxe Edition collects the return of the character's co-creator, forty years on, drawn by Kelley Jones in the most gothic register the book has ever had. Len Wein came back to Swamp Thing shortly before his death, and this is that work.

Swamp Thing by Mark Millar and Phil Hester Omnibus collects the final Vertigo run, in which Millar takes the character to the end of his story: Swamp Thing is told he is destined to become the elemental force that ends the world, and spends the run trying to work out whether that is a prophecy or a threat.

Batman Eternal was DC's attempt at a weekly Batman series: fifty-two issues published in a year, plotted by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV with a rotating writing team. The premise is a slow-motion demolition of Gotham's institutions: Jim Gordon imprisoned for a crash he did not cause, Falcone back in the city, and Batman losing the police force, Arkham and eventually Wayne Enterprises. A weekly schedule forces a plot that never idles, and at fifty-two issues in one volume it reads closer to a season of television than to a comic run.

The Black Mirror was Scott Snyder’s first major DC work, published while Bruce Wayne was absent and Dick Grayson was wearing the cowl. It established Snyder as a Batman writer and led directly to his New 52 run with Greg Capullo. This is Gotham written as horror rather than crime: the threat is a quiet, articulate young man who explains himself calmly, and the tension comes from a father who already knows what his son is. It also makes the strongest case ever published for Dick Grayson as Batman, which is why it stands alone even for readers who skip the surrounding continuity.

Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV wrote Justice League as cosmology: the Source Wall breaks and the forces that built the universe start taking sides. The premise is that the Justice League have been fighting the wrong war: the Legion of Doom is trying to unmake reality's rules rather than rob a bank. The Batman Who Laughs is included here for good reason, it is the best thing to come out of the era and it reads as the run's real antagonist.

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo defined Batman for the New 52 era, and this pack brings their entire run together in two oversized omnibus volumes. It opens with The Court of Owls, a secret society hidden inside Gotham's history, runs through Death of the Family and Zero Year, and closes with Endgame, the definitive Joker war, plus Superheavy and Bloom. One of the most acclaimed and best-selling Batman runs of the modern era, collected complete.

Justice League by Snyder & Tynion, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV wrote Justice League as cosmology: the Source Wall breaks and the forces that built the universe start taking sides. The premise is that the Justice League have been fighting the wrong war: the Legion of Doom is trying to unmake reality's rules rather than rob a bank. The Batman Who Laughs is included here for good reason, it is the best thing to come out of the era and it reads as the run's real antagonist. The second Snyder and Tynion omnibus takes the Justice League run to its conclusion, through the Year of the Villain and the rise of the Batman Who Laughs. The Batman Who Laughs stops being a crossover villain here and becomes the character DC built a whole line around: a Bruce Wayne infected by the Joker who is smarter than either. Hell Arisen is where he wins, briefly and completely, and it leads directly into Dark Nights: Death Metal.

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo relaunched Batman for the New 52 in 2011 and stayed for fifty issues, producing the best-selling Batman run of the modern era. The Court of Owls does something few writers manage: it adds a piece of Gotham history that feels like it was always there. Death of the Family then brings back a faceless Joker aimed at the whole Bat-family, and Zero Year retells the origin without repeating Year One. Capullo's Gotham is the visual reference point for the decade that followed.

The second Snyder and Capullo omnibus takes their run to its end, through Endgame and Superheavy, and asks what Gotham does when Batman is genuinely gone. Endgame is the best Joker story of the modern era: no theatricality, no motive, just a threat that treats Batman as a natural phenomenon to be studied. Superheavy then puts Jim Gordon in a mech suit as a city-sanctioned Batman, which is a far better idea than it sounds. It closes the run properly rather than handing off mid-arc.

Nightwing: The Prince of Gotham Omnibus follows Dick Grayson through the New 52 period, where Haly's Circus, Gotham's secrets and Forever Evil push his public and private identities to breaking point. Kyle Higgins writes Nightwing as mobile, exposed and emotionally open in a way that separates him from Batman's shadow. The value is character clarity: this is Dick trying to own the symbol, the city connections and the cost of being seen.