There are very few comic books that carry genuine historical weight — not manufactured significance, not anniversary marketing, but actual history. Swamp Thing 1989 #1 is one of them.
The story
In 1989, Rick Veitch was the writer on DC's Swamp Thing. He had taken over from Alan Moore, who had turned the book into one of the most critically acclaimed comics of its era. Veitch continued the story thoughtfully, embarking on a time-travel arc that sent the character across different periods of history.
Then he wrote the issue where Swamp Thing meets Jesus.
More precisely: Veitch wrote a story in which Swamp Thing, traveling through time, arrives at Golgotha during the crucifixion. The encounter is reverential — a meditation on suffering, sacrifice, and the nature of elemental beings. The script was approved at multiple levels of DC's editorial hierarchy. The issue was solicited. It was on the schedule.
Then someone got cold feet.
DC pulled the issue at the last minute. Veitch, who had been formally promised the story would run, resigned in protest. It was a genuine editorial scandal. The issue went unpublished. That was 1989.
Thirty-seven years later
Swamp Thing 1989 #1 will finally be published this July, exactly as Veitch wrote it. This is not a revised version. It's the original story, the one that was suppressed, in print for the first time.
For collectors, the significance of this is difficult to overstate. This isn't a reprint of something you've already read. It's a genuinely new publication of a genuinely historical artifact — the missing chapter of one of the most important creative runs in DC's history.
For readers coming to this without the context: it also just works as a comic. Veitch was a skilled, thoughtful writer who understood the character deeply.
A note on the broader Swamp Thing legacy
Alan Moore's run — which begins with issue #20 in 1984 — is the moment where mainstream American superhero comics demonstrated they could support genuine literary ambition. Veitch's continuation carried that ambition forward. If you want to understand why this issue matters, reading Moore's Swamp Thing is the best possible preparation. We have the collected editions available at superheroempire.com.
Ordering information
Swamp Thing 1989 #1 is available now. We expect allocation to be limited — Titles with this kind of historical profile regularly sell out at the publisher level.
Order now at superheroempire.com.
— Superhero Empire