Depending on how you, personally, as a collector, categorize these types of products, the first comic appearance of Omega from the Bad Batch, may be available to you May 3, 2022 from Penguin Random House!
The next in the Screen Comix series of books, The Bad Batch: Hunted! arrives May 3, 2022 and is currently available for pre-order. This book will contain still screen captures of scenes from the animated television show and so, on paper, constitute the first comic appearance of Omega. While the Bad Batch previously appeared in the Clone Wars Season 7 Screen Comix volume, that book did not retell anything from Omega’s first television appearance in the Bad Batch series.
Check out a preview below and grab a pre-order from Amazon.
Product info:
After refusing to follow Order 66 and destroy the Jedi, Clone Force 99 and their new friend Omega are on the run from bounty hunters Fennec Shand and Cad Bane, the Empire—and even their old teammate Crosshair! Will the Bad Batch be able to escape? This 80-page graphic novel-style retelling of Episode 9: Bounty Lost from Star Wars: The Bad Batch features final frames and dialogue from the animated series on Disney+ in vibrant full color. It’s perfect for boys and girls ages 8 to 11 and fans of Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch follows the elite and experimental troopers of Clone Force 99 (first introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars. Members of the Bad Batch, as they prefer to be called—a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army—each possess a singular exceptional skill, which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew.
Release: May 3, 2022
Pages: 80“
Now, we’ve discussed the definitions of “comic” and “comic book” before in our articles about the Clone Wars Screen Comix, and the Mandalorian Screen Comix.
While these books are nominally comics, a lot of traditional comic book collectors won’t consider them to be a first “comic book” appearance. This is for a number of different reasons they can choose from. The format is too long (around 80 pages versus the traditional 22 page single issues), the format is too small (digest pocketbook format versus traditional approximate 10″x7″ single issue format), or the screen captures from the show don’t constitute comic book art that they are interested in collecting.
So while, these are the first published comics by some definition, the comic collecting market at large is unlikely to take enough interest in them to cause their value to significantly rise on the aftermarket. For those Star Wars comic collecting completists, however, this is a wonderful curiosity worth having. I’ll be buying one, as I already own the Clone Wars Screen Comix and Mandalorian Screen Comix from before as well.
