Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Swamp Thing #1
DC Comics
Snyder & Paquette
For me, the most anticipated launch of the whole DCU reboot/relaunch is that of Swamp Thing. Putting Scott Snyder at the helm made the book that much more appealing to me. With the character's long history of amazing creators, it seems this book had a lot to live up to even if it wasn't tied to the massive relaunch. Overall, the book was okay. It wasn't great but it also wasn't slow enough that I plan to immediately drop it. I'm not sure casual fans of the character are going to want to stick around, but I do think the hardcore Snyder fans or fans of the character are willing to see where all of this is heading. I am in the latter's camp.
The book begins with a ton of creatures, such as birds and fish, dropping dead. This puts on display some characters, such as Clark Kent, Batman and Aquaman in all their new, weird angular costumes. Superman takes it upon himself to seek out Alec Holland to find out if his knowledge of science can assist in the matter. Really, Superman is looking for Swamp Thing.
Holland is working construction and through a series of captions we learn more about the character. What isn't clear about all of this is exactly what happened to the character and how he changed from the Swamp Thing back into Alec Holland. He keeps referring to memories of being the Swamp Thing as if they aren't real but Superman seems to remember them. I found this sequence to be confusing in more ways than one. Are we to assume that some of the past stories still count towards the character or is all meant to be a mystery? How did Holland switch back from being the Swamp Thing? Sadly, this seems to call on the Brightest Day mini series that recently came out but why it's assumed that people read that is beyond me.
The bulk of the remainder of the issue is spent crafting the plot. It's got a lot of horror elements to it as Snyder is clearly allowed to take the book down the dark paths he is so great at writing. Snyder seems to be bringing together a few elements that could make this arc a very memorable one.
Paquette's art brings a very solid realistic style to it. He excels in the end with the last few pages where the horrific panels of the issue begin to surface. If Paquette can continue to bring this level of detail to the stories where the fright factor is so strongly determined by the visuals then I think this series is going to be one to watch for sure.
Snyder manages to establish Alec Holland in the first issue and definitely brings together a scary threat at the end of the issue but he keeps the lid on the Swamp Thing. I'm still not quite sure what kind of character we are dealing with here and that will go a long way in determining whether or not I stick with the series. I think if this comic didn't shy away from explaining some of the nuisances in the back-story I would have come away with a more satisfying read. Overall, this is a decent start but this isn't going to be a book for everyone.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
