Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
Today I’m back on Near Mint Condition for a second week in a row with my friend The Uncanny Omar! This time, we’re talking about Marvel’s entire release slate of omnibus titles for the first half of 2027 – from January to June.
Hear me talk about every upcoming Marvel omnibus I’ve written about over the past few months, as summarized in my Marvel 2027 Omnibus Announcements summary this weekend… plus, one new reprint announced after we thought all of the announcements were through!
This is the week that the DC Catalog for January to June 2027 drops, and before it does DC comics shared one very special and totally exclusive DC Omnibus announcement via Near Mint Condition. Why is this book being announced through Omar and Near Mint? Because the Minties who watch the channel and the thousands of voters on the DC Tigereyes Most-Wanted Omnibus Poll have made it clear that this is the most-wanted DC Omnibus on all of the internet: Batgirl – Cassandra Cain Omnibus Vol. 1!
WE DID IT, Y’ALL!
Batgirl: Cassandra Cain Omnibus Vol. 1 was the #2 result on our first DC Tigereyes Most-Wanted Omnibus Poll in 2024, just barely losing to Batman by Tom King Omnibus Vol. 1 in the final hours of voting. Then, in 2025 and 2026, this book has been #1 on the poll with a tremendous lead over every other result. It maintained that lead even after the announcement and release of a Batgirl DC Finest that contains about half of the material for this book.
Why is Cassandra Cain so popular with collected edition fans? We’ve dug into this year after year for our polls.
I think a part of it is that she was the Batgirl of most of the 00s, when a lot of current readers and collectors formed their opinions and tastes. Also, her 00s series was never completely collected in a single format despite a few false starts, so folks really want to see it on the shelf.
However, I think there’s also something to Cassandra Cain’s character that makes her so appealing. In a way, she is more like a typical Marvel hero than typical major DC hero. She is not an icon with an infallible power, knowledge, or fortune. Instead, she has a tragic history, a connection to an iconic villain, and a determination to be an instrument of good in the world. [Read more…] about DC Omnibus Announcement: Batgirl – Cassandra Cain Omnibus Vol. 1
Over the past two months, Near Mint Condition has announced all of the Marvel omnibuses due for release in the first half of 2027 – including both new collections and omnibus reprints. And, for each book I’ve written a post explaining its importance and what it collects.
Below, I’ve summarized that as a full release schedule for the first half of 2026, along with links to all of those posts and their corresponding guides. [Read more…] about Marvel Omnibus Announcements Summary, January to June 2027
Near Mint Condition announced the final Marvel omnibus due in the first half of 2027, though this is not the last one to be released. This is an April 2027 book, and the reason Omar saved it for last is because it has placed in the Top 60 of the Tigereyes Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus poll for the past ten years, including spending the past three years in the Top 10. That makes it one of the most-wanted Marvel collected editions of this millennium… and now we’re finally going to see it in print: Punisher: Enter the War Zone AKA Punisher by Greg Rucka!
THIS IS A BIG DEAL, Y’ALL. Marvel has not published a mainstream, non-MAX continuity Punisher omnibus since 2017, and we only have three books in total for a character with hundreds of issues: Punisher: Back to the War Omnibus collecting his earliest issues, Punisher by Garth Ennis Omnibus collecting his more mature (but not MAX) early-00s run, and Punisher by Rick Remender Omnibus with his somewhat pulpy adventures as a monster.
Fans absolutely revere this Greg Rucka run and with good reason. Rucka would never treat Punisher as a deliciously transgressive murder machine so we could root for his vengeful ways. Instead, Rucka reckoned with Frank Castle as a real human being existing in this super universe, and what that would mean both for his motivations and for the ramifications of his actions.
Also, much of this run was drawn by Marco Checchetto (and, subsequently Carmine Di Giandomenico in the second series), making it one of the most-gorgeous Punisher runs of all time. [Read more…] about Marvel Omnibus Announcement – Punisher: Enter the War Zone Omnibus AKA Punisher by Greg Rucka!
Near Mint Condition announced another one of the final Marvel omnibuses for the first half of 2027, and this June 2027 book is also the final omnibus collecting it’s lengthy solo series – the longest-running solo title for any individual X-Man! That’s right, it’s time to complete your shelves, bub: Wolverine The Return of Weapon X Omnibus [AKA Wolverine Omnibus Vol. 8]!
This omnibus is the final collection of the Wolverine (1988) series as well as all of Wolverine’s appearances in Marvel Comics Presents (1988) (which wrapped up in Vol. 5), and all of his original graphic novels (the last of which was in the prior volume, Not Dead Yet Omnibus AKA Volume 7).
With anthology stories and OGNs wrapped up, does this book collect anything other than Wolverine (1988) issues? Yes it does! That’s because this run was being released alongside Grant Morrison’s New X-Men era of X-Men, which was also a period that included many mini-series in many different styles of storytelling.
Let’s take a look at what we predicted this book might contain on the 2026 Tigereyes Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus poll versus the announced contents.