Comic Review: Swamp Thing 1 & 2

Volume 1

    When DC’s New 52 started, I figured it would be a good time to give a bunch of their characters a try.  One of the first issues I read was for Swamp Thing.  I’d always liked the look of the character, I’d heard some good things about comics from the past, and I’d liked the 80s movie.  But the first issue was pretty dull, featuring Superman for crying out loud.  I figured I’d skip that one.  For some reason, a few months later, I read the ‘issue 0’ when that gimmick flexed through the various New 52 lines, and suddenly I questioned my choice.  I really enjoyed the story, and it was one of the things that pushed me to finally sit down to Alan Moore’s venerated run.  So, here I am, a year or so later, reading the first two trades of Scott Snyder’s new series.  Snyder also wrote one of the other New 52 titles I ended up liking, the Batman: Court of Owls story.  He’s obviously delving back into the early life of Earth’s Green champion here, including Moore’s material.  How it all fits in this weird re-launch of the DC universe, who can say?  But the Green, Red, and Rot could be a very interesting battle.

    While I’m not in love with the art, it’s a heck of a lot better than several of the lines out there.  And it feels like the wacky panel work is trying to capture some of the strange stuff from the classic run.  The stuff with the Rot and its creatures is disgusting.  Really disgusting.  The story is OK, though this reborn Alec Holland is king of a putz.  He Luke Skywalkers up the first volume quite a bit, and I was ready for him to get run over on his way to pick up some power converters.  Abby once again seems to be a more interesting character, with more going on.

Volume 2

    All kinds of crazy stuff happens in the second book of Scott Snyder’s new Swamp Thing.  Abby and the Rot.  Alec and the green.  Some flashback stuff about Arcane and the Un-Men.  Even a flashback to young Alec as a college student on a fieldtrip to Eastern Europe.  But in spite of a couple pretty big things happening, it feels like it’s primarily designed to set up the Rotworld story I think may be going on in the comic (as well as Animal Man) right now.  Shows how much I keep up on current events.

    I’m very curious to see where this series goes, and what connections to some of the other characters it might forge.  There is a brief appearance of Poison Ivy at the end of volume 2 (which seems to be some kind of a time jump forward…or something).  As I was reading Alan Moore’s run, especially when Swamp Thing ended up in Gotham, I kept thinking he and Poison Ivy needed to meet.  Seems someone else thought the same.  And what’s going on with Abby?  I’m assuming that glimpse into the future was from an imperfect vantage point.  This sure has the potential to be one of the better DC titles (granted, there’s not an awful lot of competition).  It’s really their game to botch at this point.  Can Snyder and company take the ideas they’ve introduced and not screw them up?  We’ll see.

Swamp Thing Volume 1: Raise Them Bones
Author: Scott Snyder
Artist: Yanick Paquette
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3462-1

Swamp Thing Volume 2: Family Tree
Author: Scott Snyder
Artist: Yanick Paquette
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3462-1


-Matt