Comic Info
Comic Name: Swamp Thing (Volume 5)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Yanick Paquette
# of Issues: 7
Release Date: 2012
Swamp Thing (5) #2
Reprints Swamp Thing (5) #1-7 (November 2011-May 2012). Alec Holland was never Swamp Thing, but he remembers being Swamp Thing. Alec is contacted by the Parliament of Trees and asked to return to the Green to battle a new threat from the Rot. When Alec learns that his biggest enemy could be Swamp Thing’s former lover Abigail Arcane, Alec debates returning to the life that caused him pain.
Written by Scott Snyder, Swamp Thing Volume 1: Raise Them Bones is part of the DC Comics’ New 52 relaunch of the universe. The collection features art by Yanick Paquette and was well received by critics.
For years, Swamp Thing was relegated to DC’s Vertigo line and never had any interaction with the DC Universe proper…or at least any significant interaction. With the Brightest Day, both Swamp Thing and John Constantine were re-merged with the DCU…then Flashpoint happened. After Flashpoint, the DC Universe was rewritten again and much of Brightest Day seems to be eliminated (much to my frustration as a reader of Brightest Day), but Constantine and Swamp Thing survived the re-imagining (with Constantine joining one of Swamp Thing‘s sister book Justice League Dark).
The story running in these issues of Swamp Thing also is connected heavily to Animal Man starting issues (collected as Animal Man 1: The Hunt). Both comics involve the rise of the Rot. It is spreading across the land and both Animal Man and Swamp Thing are facing it. Here in Swamp Thing, the Rot is going after the Green, in Animal Man it is going after the Red.
Scott Snyder’s Swamp Thing isn’t Alan Moore, but it is very good and creepy. Swamp Thing manages to be brought back into the world of horror and DC at the same time. Alan Moore did that seamlessly in his storyline (still within the DC universe) and hopefully Snyder will walk that line. The story and art are fun, and in spite of the fact that Alec Holland isn’t even the Swamp Thing throughout the story, it still remains compelling.
Swamp Thing is one of the better New 52 titles and the first arc of the story shows great promise for a series which had such a high point in the 1980s. I’m looking forward to seeing more from Snyder and the direction he’s going to take the story. With strong sales, it looks like it is going to happen…let’s just hope that DC doesn’t start mucking with the formula and the vegetable vindicator stays on top. Swamp Thing 1: Raise Them Bones is followed by Swamp Thing 2: Family Tree.
Related Links:
Swamp Thing 3: Rotworld—The Green Kingdom
