Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Swamp Thing #1

By Dan Horn
September 9, 2011 - 09:59

Because of the stylistic and thematic shift in comic books in the 80s and early 90s, a lot of really great DC titles joined the dark side, i.e. they dropped the DC imprint and picked up Vertigo in its stead. The switch to Vertigo meant that less and less writers were willing to incorporate the noticeably maturer and stranger Vertigo franchises into their DC superhero books and vice versa, mostly because of content issues and editorial impasses; never mind that before the imprint change Doom Patrol saved Paris from a painting with the help of the Justice League, Sandman teamed-up with Martian Manhunter, and Swamp Thing defeated Woodrue and handed him off to Superman and Green Lantern.

Recently, there was another shift in continuity, even before Flashpoint and all of that nonsense. It may have originated in Paul Cornell's "Black Ring" arc in Action Comics in which Death, from the Vertigo series Sandman and her eponymous graphic novel, met with Lex Luthor. Not long after, Geoff Johns' Brightest Day unveiled plans for Swamp Thing and John Constantine to return to the DCU in some capacity. Several really awful issues of a pseudo-event based around finding Swampy later, and here we are: the New 52 launch of Swamp Thing #1.

The strange thing about this issue is that it incorporates a lot of continuity, if not all of Swamp Thing's continuity, and I'm not quite certain this is a great jumping-on point for new readers. There's a level of familiarity you have to have with this character to really get a sense of what's going on. When Dr. Alec Holland, the former Swamp Thing whose humanity has been fully restored, is introduced, Scott Snyder does an admirable job of subtly weaving a lot of exposition into an otherwise fantastic narrative. It's exposition that new readers would be lost without, and in that way Swamp Thing #1 really differs from the other titles that have taken a "fresh start" approach. We're not jumping into this story six years after Alec Holland became Swamp Thing; we're jumping in with nearly forty years of this character's history still intact. This isn't a bad thing, per se, and it really has little effect on the quality of this debut, but I'm noticing many inconsistencies and a lack of uniformity of quality in the New 52 line of books. Swamp Thing retaining forty years of continuity is absolutely an inconsistency.

But, once past all of the catch-up this issue seemed to be doing, however discreetly, I was really pleasantly surprised by the truly terrifying stuff contained within. Holland is disinclined to even help the world anymore, even through using his vegetation serum to grow food in famine-stricken lands, because he's forever changed by his experiences as a hulking, green plant creature. The idea that the flora world is just as violent as any other, just in slow motion, is an incredible motif that runs throughout Swamp Thing's decades of publication, and it's adroitly identified and utilized in this issue. The emergence of a grotesque new monster with some equally grotesque powers also lends a hand in making this chapter an engrossing read. Scott Snyder really seems to have encapsulated the philosophical spirit of Alan Moore's iconic Swamp Thing run with the gross-out horror of Len Wein's original take on the character.

Yanick Paquette's art and Nathan Fairbairn's colors are by turns gorgeous and disturbing compliments to the storytelling in Swamp Thing #1, though Paquette's Superman, who makes a cameo appearance to ask Dr. Holland for Swamp Thing's help, oddly looks like he could do without all the Twinkies and Ho-Ho's. This is a solid beginning, if not in keeping with the posited formula of the New 52, and I think Snyder's got this series in the bag.

Rating: 8.5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12