Swamp Thing #1 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Yanick Paquette (artist), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist)

The Story: I’m telling you, man—I don’t like the way that shrub is looking at me!

The Review: Despite Swamp Thing’s illustrious career, we really do know oh so very little about its human originator, botanist Alec Holland.  Snyder has already covered in several interviews some of the infrequently asked questions about Holland, but there’s a loaded query that may prove crucial over the course of this series.  We all know Swamp Thing had a lot of heart, but does the one inside the monster beat at the same pace as the one inside the man?

We may never really know the answer to that.  As the man himself admits, “I didn’t come back as Alec Holland from before.  I came back as someone else.”  His memories have been colored with years of memories from his dubious existence as a vegetative avatar, with experiences that apparently still linger in his resurrected brain.  All this makes him and us question which thoughts belong to him, and which are residue of the creature he can’t seem to leave behind.

Whatever the case, Alec’s morbid view of nature certainly gives you food for thought.  For most of us softhanded folk of the city or suburbs, the great outdoors calls to mind verdant valleys, still woods, the lovely hues of flowers.  Alec sees it as one plant preying on another, scratching and clawing as fiercely for survival as any animal.  Scoff if you wish, but you have to admit, his disturbing image of flowers shrieking for their lives under a thresher certainly stays with you.

These paranoid notions may not be his own, but figuring that out hangs on the low rung of his priorities.  He may be lost, spiritually, but he also bluntly states (to Superman, eternal wellspring of optimism, no less!), “…right now, I just don’t want to be found.”  The statement may not refer strictly to his soul-searching; this ex-botanist has history with the Green, and by the issue’s end, we can see it has no intention of letting him live his second life freely.

WCBR’s Picks Of The Week

Best From The Past Week: Secret Avengers #16 – This series hadn’t sucked or anything like that, but it hadn’t been awesome very often (probably not since that stand alone issue ~#5 where we met Max Fury).  Mix in some Warren Ellis and don’t bind him too strongly to Fear Itself or whatever else is transpiring in the Marvel U. and you get something pretty magical.  This read like Global Frequency starring Steve Rogers, Black Widow, Beast and Moon Knight as they checked out a Secret Empire facility under Cincinnati.  Great art by Jamie McKelvie too!  Runner-up: Amazing Spider-Man #668

Most Anticipated This Week: Swamp Thing #1 – A LOT of good looking comics coming out this week (see below), but I just know that Swamp Thing is going to have me seeking the weak Wi-Fi signal in our office suite to I can download Swamp Thing to my iPad.  Can’t say I’m an expert on Swamp Thing although I’ve read a little bit of the old Alan Moore stuff, but Scott Snyder hasn’t written a poor issue yet and Yannick Paquette’s style seems very suited to drawing a swamp monster.

Other Picks: Action Comics #1, Animal Man #1, Men of War #1, Sweet Tooth #25, 50 Girls 50 #4, Hack/Slash #7, Morning Glories #12, Hulk #40, Thunderbolts #163, X-Men #17, Atomic Robo: Ghost of Station X #1, Cavewoman Snow #3, Critter #2, Irredeemable #29 (and these are just the one’s I’m “excited” about on my pull list)