Swamp Thing 6: The Sureen

Comic Info

Swamp Thing (5) #28

Reprints Swamp Thing (5) #28-34 and Aquaman (5) #31 (May 2014-October 2014).  The Parliament of Trees is gone, but Swamp Thing’s problems are just beginning.  When a group called the Sureen arrive and offer Swamp Thing a chance to be human for a while, it seems like a gift…but the Sureen might not be what they seem and the events threatening the Green around the world might have an entirely different source.

Written by Charles Soule with Jeff Parker helping writing the Aquaman crossover, Swamp Thing Volume 6:  The Sureen is the penultimate volume in the DC Comics New 52 series.  Following Swamp Thing Volume 5:  The Killing Field, the comic features art by Jesus Saiz, Javier Pina, Paul Pelletier, and Sean Parsons.  The Aquaman crossover was also collected in Aquaman 5:  Sea of Storms.

Swamp Thing started out with quite a bang in the New 52 and was one of my favorite of the relaunched comics.  Snyder’s Swamp Thing was a tough thing to follow, but Soule kept the story going by continuing to advance the plot.  The story is largely about the Wolf and the Lady Weeds though the collection is broken into three parts.

The first part involves the Sureen who are worshippers of the Green and are vassals to the Avatar, but it turns out to be an illusion.  It feels like the story is a bit truncated and that the story is resolved a bit too quickly.  I wish that there had been more of an effort to keep the Swamp Thing’s body.  Once Swamp Thing knows where it is he picks it up easily…and then the story is virtually over (the Grey Avatar doesn’t seem like much of a match).

Swamp Thing (5) #34

The second story crosses over with Aquaman and presents a nice “vs” story.  The idea of sea life isn’t explored much in Swamp Thing, but the ocean is teaming with microscopic plant-life in addition to massive amounts of things like kelp and seaweed.  Once again, I feel that this opens a whole new can of worms and that the room for exploration is ripe (kind of like Alan Moore’s trip to space in his classic run).

The final arc wraps up the issue with the Wolf and the Lady Weeds.  For all the plotting and planning (it was the Wolf responsible for the Sureen and the monster in the Aquaman story), the plans don’t seem very thought out.  The Lady Weeds just takes a couple women hostage to try to get the body back…it seems below the worldwide crisis the Swamp Thing losing his body could create.

Despite the criticisms, I admire that Swamp Thing at least tries to have developed plotline that don’t simply involve pages and pages of fighting with little content.  There is still fighting, but Swamp Thing sometimes feels “wordier” than other comics that are out there, and I like that.  It helps develop the characters and stories.  Swamp Thing 6:  The Sureen is followed by the final collection Swamp Thing 7:  Season’s End.

Related Links:

Swamp Thing 1:  Raise Them Bones

Swamp Thing 2:  Family Tree

Swamp Thing 3:  Rotworld—The Green Kingdom

Swamp Thing 4:  Seeder

Swamp Thing 5:  The Killing Field

Swamp Thing 7:  Season’s End

Aquaman 5:  Sea of Storms