Swamp Thing (2016, vol. 6) Issues 1-4

Pic from DC Comics

WARNING: Contains spoilers for Swamp Thing issues 1-4 (2016)

As I’ve mentioned before, I always liked comics as a kid, but Swamp Thing is the one that really pulled me into my current level of interest. Y’see, back in the late 1990s, DC republished a bunch of Alan Moore’s run on the title as black and white single issues. Flash forward to 2006 and Gosford Book Exchange had a bunch of them in stock – a relic of the long-closed Phantom Zone store that had once been next door. This was right around the time the film of V for Vendetta had been released, so I held Alan Moore’s name in quite a bit of esteem. They were going cheap, so I picked them up and promptly became a huge fan.

Anyway, DC has relaunched Swamp Thing again for 2016, apparently with the intention of restoring him to his early horror comic roots, as opposed to the surreal mix of philosophy, theology and occult themes that the 1980s Alan Moore run tackled. This shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing – few people aside from Moore would have had the skill to pull that kind of thing off. These first four issues have also featured quite a bit of action alongside some vaguely Lovecraftian themes, and it's avoided the ponderous pace that (good as it was) sometimes plagued Moore's run. 

The series was initially announced as a 6-issue miniseries, but this qualifier was dropped after issue 1 – so at this point I’m a little unclear as to whether the series will be continuing. I guess it will depend on sales, which seem to be quite strong thus far. Also, DC's Rebirth event is coming up in a few months, so maybe he'll get a new issue 1 at that point. Time will tell. 

Issue 1 assumes a little bit of familiarity with the existing Swamp Thing mythos, but also serves as a basic introduction, too. From there, we see a dead teen resurrected into a (now curiously bald) zombie – it seems he’s been resurrected by a local professor who’s been fooling around with the darker side of the occult. Swamp Thing expects it to be a pretty straightforward matter, but it transpires that the zombie is much stronger than expected, and literally tears Swamp Thing in two by the end of the book. In a post-Walking Dead world, where zombies are well past saturation point and bare, this more supernaturally-inspired take on the creature seems pleasantly (and ironically) fresh. Issue 2 wraps up the situation with the zombie, by revealing that not all is quite what it seems with the dead teen’s parents. Shade shows up, revealing the secrets of how to slay the beast, and later on the Phantom Stranger shows up to speak to Swamp Thing in his usual maddeningly cryptic style.  

With the zombie now dealt with, Issue 3 sets up a new story arc. Old ally Matt Cable reappears in Swamp Thing’s life, having acquired a mystical artefact called the “Hand of Fatima”. Now, back in the 1980s, Matt Cable ended up getting himself possessed by the villainous Anton Arcane, and did some pretty awful things while under his spell. I’m unclear as to whether Matt appeared in the 2011-2015 run of Swamp Thing, but going off his introduction here it seems like he’s been MIA for some time. But at any rate, he offers to use the Hand of Fatima to restore Swamp Thing to human form – which is an offer he can’t really refuse. Zatanna is the big guest star in this issue, which is great. I’ve always really liked her, but I think it's a shame that she hasn't been a full-fledged member of the Justice League since...the 1980s? I don’t think she’s ever even had a standalone series that wasn’t simply a miniseries. At any rate, always good to see her. She's been rendered with a Betty Page haircut here, which works with the noirish tone of the book. She’s also in full-blown mystic mode here, enacting a ritual with the Hand of Fatima to turn Swamp Thing back to Alec Holland.

Issue 4 picks up right where issue 3 finished – Matt Cable is now the Swamp Thing, with Alec Holland restored to humanity. Alec spends a few days teaching him how to control his new-found control of The Green, but in a (not really) shocking twist we discover that Matt has actually staged the elaborate transformation for his own sinister means – specifically to gain control of the Green to “police the world”. So what happens next? We’ll find out in May, when issue 5 is released. 

So there’s the plot summaries, but how does the whole thing track? Well, Kelley Jones’ art has a great noir-ish style, but I actually think it would be better if it had been published in black and white. Its got an appropriately eerie vibe, and I feel like it would have been better served by going all-in with B&W; the colour feels like it undercuts things to some degree.

As one of the co-creators of the character, Len Wein’s writing is also engaging; though the plot twists and turns are easy to spot coming, it’s entertaining enough that I want to keep reading, and see how some of the potential plot threads touched on may expand on in future issues. However, Issue 4 is probably the weakest of the bunch. Its plot of Matt Cable-Swamp Thing turning up in town and terrorising the inhabitants hits too many similar notes to a plot from a 1984 issue, where the Floronic Man shows up with similar intentions. This borrowing of plot points is common in comics, and were it some kind of obscure issue then it probably wouldn't be a big deal. But it's from -- you guessed it -- Alan Moore's run on the character, which means the issue is still readily available in reprints for re-reading and comparison.  

Swamp Thing is one of my favourite DC characters, so I’m pleased to see him return to print. Inevitably, this book will be compared with Alan Moore’s run – it definitely doesn’t hit those highs, but for those looking for a slightly darker/horror take on the superhero genre, it’s well worth a look. Hopefully it continues to maintain the same standard, and that Issue 6 isn’t the last -- or at least that he gets a Rebirth along with the other DC characters.

POP! Heroes – Swamp Thing (glow-in-the-dark variant)

Company: Funko

Series: POP! Heroes

Year: 2015

It has not been a good few weeks over here at the LBC. For the last few weekends I’ve been laid low with various illnesses and maladies, so updates have been pretty thin on the ground. So I’m sitting at home, struggling to keep to it together as snot emerges from my nose at a frightening speed. What connection does this have to Swamp Thing? Well, he’s quite green and is presumably always dripping with ichorous fluids, so yeah, let’s go with that. 

I always liked comics as a kid, but Swamp Thing is the one that really pulled me into my current level of interest. Y’see, back in the late 1990s, DC republished a bunch of Alan Moore’s run on the title as black and white single issues. Flash forward to 2006 and Gosford Book Exchange had a bunch of them in stock – a relic of the long-closed Phantom Zone store that had once been next door. This was right around the time the film of V for Vendetta had been released, so I held Alan Moore’s name in quite a bit of esteem. They were going cheap, so I picked them up and promptly became a huge fan, rekindling an enjoyment of comics that actually became quite unhealthy for a while. 

But I emerged better for the experience, and here we are today. Pretty much ever since I started collecting POPs, I’ve wanted Funko to do a Swamp Thing. But I wasn’t confident that would happen – his complex design was quite far removed from the simplistic style Funko was working with at the time, and the character’s peak popularity was a couple of decades ago.    

The box art is great. The Funko art style is a good render of the character’s distinct look, and they’ve incorporated the old-style logo, rather than the New 52 version. The back of the packaging is a little curious; as Swamp Thing has been released solo (I’ll get to that in a moment) rather than in conjunction with other characters, the box just depicts the first few DC POPs that were released, including the now-rare Batgirl. Fingers crossed for a re-release of her, as I didn’t pick her up in back in the day and she’s now exceedingly expensive…

The sculpt is some great work from Funko. Lots of little details have been worked into the sculpt, like the vines, the I think the nose should have been a little bit more prominent on the face, like this, but it’s otherwise quite well executed. He's cast in semi-translucent plastic, which is a good idea, but does mean that the head and body are slightly different shades of green. He’s been given a black wash to bring out all of the little details, which is a good touch. But on the subject of paint…     

Paint…sigh…well, I don’t need to tell any regular readers or fellow POP collectors that Funko tend to do a below-average job when it comes to paint. Swamp Thing does not buck that trend, unfortunately. The front of him is okay; the brown vines could be a little neater and red eyes, but they’re within the acceptable range. But turn him around and you’ll see he just hasn’t been painted – all the details are just blank!

Now, I should clarify that this may be because I picked up the glow in the dark version specifically. There are three versions of this POP available – a regular, a glow one and a flocked one. All of them look pretty good. The regular and glow versions look virtually interchangeable; you’ll notice on the box that there isn’t the usual “Glow in the Dark” sticker, so how these will be told apart in a shop setting (as opposed to ordering online) is a bit of a mystery to me. The flocked version also looks fantastic, and I was tempted to order that too – but we’ll see.         

Overall, Swamp Thing is a good addition to the collection -- I never really thought we'd see him released, particularly not in multiple forms. While I don’t think they quite knocked it out of the park, I do think that Funko have delivered a solid product in sculpt, if not paint. Highly recommended for Swamp Thing fans, regardless of era. 

Wonder Woman #36 (The New 52)

Image copyright DC Comics 2014

The New 52, eh? It’s something I have mixed feelings about – I was quite fond of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe, flawed though it was, and I wasn’t thrilled to see it go. But like any other business, comics is a money game and I’m lead to believe that The New 52 relaunch back in 2011 did some pretty good business – so it looks like we’re keeping it for the foreseeable future.

All of this, of course, is a very long-winded way of essentially saying that I’ve read very little of the New 52, outside of the Justice League, so I’m not up to speed with all the current continuity. So please forgive any errors I may make as I write about this issue.  

This issue has been out for a couple of weeks now, so I’m hardly first cab off the ranks in reviewing it – think of this a catch-up before issue #37 arrives. 

First things first – the art. It may be shallow, but I do often find it difficult to read a comic when I don’t particularly like an art style, and that’s one of the main reasons I never picked up any of Cliff Chiang’s run on this series over the last few years.* But now that David Finch is on pencilling duties, I’m planning to be all over it. Even my perennial favourites Jim Lee and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez have disappointed me from time to time, but I’m yet to see comic art by David Finch that I don’t like.

While I wouldn’t say this is his all-time best work, it’s still pretty darn good. Sensation Comics have thrown us a myriad of interpretations of Diana over the last few months, some of them better than others -- this issue, on art at least, blows all of them away. 

And with that we move on to part 2 – the story. Written by Meredith Finch (David's wife) it does an adequate job. As might be expected, there’s not a whole lot in the way of plot advancement; a lot of the issue seems designed around easing in the new creative team, and introducing (or perhaps re-introducing) characters who we can assume will be important in the upcoming story arc. There’s also something of a recap for readers such as myself, who haven’t been reading the last few years of the book; The Amazons are annoyed at Diana for her liberal views, and allowing men onto Themyscira, which is bound to cause trouble in future issues.

Image copyright DC Comics 2014

In terms of the larger plot arc, there’s someone or something who’s controlling the weather, causing natural disasters. The JLA cameo, which is to be expected, as does Swamp Thing. I really appreciated this, as he’s long been one of my favourite DC characters and often doesn't get the love he deserves.

Image copyright DC Comics 2014

The issue finishes with a fairly abrupt cliffhanger, which I won’t reveal here. How the consequences unfold over issues to come remains to be seen, but I'm certainly intrigued.  

Wonder Woman #36 comes recommended for WW and David Finch fans alike. It’s not groundbreaking, but it shows promise for strong future issues from this particular creative team – here’s hoping it delivers to expectations!   

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*Cliff Chiang is not a bad artist, btw. His style for WW just hasn't really clicked with me.