Swamp Thing #9 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (story), Yanick Paquette & Marco Rudy (art), Nathan Fairbairn & Val Staples (colors)

The Story: Abby hasn’t learned that it’s rarely a good idea to trust canned food of any kind.

The Review: One thing that’s become obvious about Snyder’s writing is he loves to take his time.  I don’t mean his pacing is slow; I mean that every issue feels like a clear stepping-stone to the next, and all of them together form a path through the woods to some great destination only Snyder knows about.  In short, Snyder is very much a student of the decompression school of comic book writing, which is not a bad thing if you’re diverted enough along the way.

Snyder’s sprightly writing ability will keep you occupied most of the time—how can you not appreciate lines like, “You like the way the foxfire makes the bayou glow at night”?  But great prose can’t always disguise the fact that there’s not a whole lot going on.  This series has always struggled to fill the pages with its tiny cast (with only two regular characters and perhaps the same number of recurring ones) and its one plotline.  Unlike the hive of activity over in its sister title, Animal Man, you rarely get an opportunity to break away from the main event.

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Best of the past week: American Vampire #26 – This issue was a real treat.  For one thing, it introduced me to a wonderful fill-in artist in Roger Cruz.  I’d love to see more of his work after this AV stint is finished.  Seriously….how is Vertigo able to continually find guys of this caliber to fill in when most comic series are only able to get a B-lister (at best)?  The story is also really compelling.  Scott Snyder’s story about a black vampire in 1950’s Alabama has just enough depth and complexity to be interesting if you scratch the surface, but not require you read the comic 10 times and still be confused or have to wait 5 years for the pay-off.  Runner-up: FF #17 (for accomplishing the rare feat of making me laugh at a comic book).