Comic Info
Comic Name: The Swamp Thing/Future State: Swamp Thing
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Ram V
Artist: Mike Perkins
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2021
The Swamp Thing #1 Variant
Reprints The Swamp Thing #1-4 and Future State: Swamp Thing #1-2 (March 2021-August 2021). Levi Kamei finds his life suddenly in flux. He is the next Avatar of the Green…he is the Swamp Thing. As Levi tries to figure out what the title means, he learns that there is a sickness growing in the Green…and he might be the cause! Plus in a future world, the Swamp Thing leads a group of his creations to find the last survivors of humanity…but quickly learns the sins of his past might come back to haunt him.
Written by Ram V, The Swamp Thing Volume 1: Becoming is a DC Comics superhero collection. The series collects the storylines of “Becoming”, “My Green Amaranthine”, and the two issue spin off series Future State: Swamp Thing (March 2021-April 2021) which actually was a prequel to the series. Issues in this collection were also collected in Future State: Suicide Squad.
Swamp Thing is a fun character to play with. Alan Moore showed his potential but writers since him have shown his versatility and range…Ram V is the next in that line, but it also feels like the roots of Swamp Thing have been tapped one too many times.
The biggest switch up in this volume is that the Swamp Thing is Levi Kamei. Kamei is the new Avatar of the Green and learning to be the new Avatar. It is a path followed in Moore and in a world of climate change, it is worth reinvestigating. While I like the Tom Holland Swamp Thing (who does appear here), it is nice to get a different world perspective on the character since Swamp Thing is a world (or even otherworldly) character…what happens to Earth affects everyone. It seems short sighted that Swamp Thing has to be American (I even would argue it would have been nice if the story had been based outside of the U.S.).
The Swamp Thing #2 Variant
The problem is that the trips into the Green, mysterious men in the desert, and confrontations with old Avatars, Poison Ivy, and Jason Woodrue feel a bit stale. There is a ton the character can do, but it feels like we’ve done this before. That is part of the idea…the Avatar is always changing and being reborn, but if you are a long time reader of Swamp Thing, you’ve seen it happen before.
The second problem with this collection is the Future State tie-in issues. It feels like The Swamp Thing is starting to get going, but then you have the two Future State: Swamp Thing issues tacked on to the end. Like most event series, it is world building, but the world is built and then the world ends. The world created in Future State has potential, but you know it isn’t permanent and the story is limited to two (unsatisfying) issues.
The Swamp Thing Volume 1: Becoming isn’t a bad collection and it is better than a lot of stuff out there…but I still want a little more from it. The ideas and approach to the character is right, but I feel like a better blend between the Green storylines and the DC Universe can be reworked better. I do look forward to where it might go and what the plan is. The series was originally scheduled for ten issues but was extended during the run. The Swamp Thing Volume 1: Becoming is followed by The Swamp Thing Volume 2: Conduit.
