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.

We don’t know if the Green seeks out Alec for its own devices or to address the monstrosity at hand, but at some point, someone’s got to tackle this walking horror.  Within a few pages, it establishes itself as a terrifying entity to behold.  I’ll spare you the details, but the way it offs those three scientists, all the while crooning soothingly, “It’s okay…it’s okay…”—well, it definitely lends credence to labeling this title as “Dark.”  It may well keep you up tonight.

People have a conflicted reaction towards the unknown.  The more foreign and unrecognizable something is, the more it plays upon our fears, but the more it also draws our curiosity.  Snyder works both emotions expertly, consistently offering ideas and scenes that disrupt the sense of familiarity we need for peace of mind.  In other words, he’s getting very good at disturbing you, which may not be the most pleasant feeling in the world, but rather addictive all the same.

Can we just straight out classify Paquette as a rising star among DC’s ranks of artists?  The depth of his work gives such life to the characters that instead of seeming “drawn” or “cartoony” and therefore impervious to pain, they take on a sense of fragility.  These characters can be damaged, and so you instantly feel tension for them.  But beyond that, Paquette provides simply some of the most eerily beautiful imagery I’ve seen, pulsing from Fairbairn’s colors.

Conclusion: For those of you who doubted the wisdom of bringing Swamp Thing back into the DCU prime, well, this title should make a believer out of you in time, so long as Snyder and Paquette continue to bring this high level of play every month.

Grade: A-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Hmm.  Lois Lane with Clark and Perry at the Daily Planet.  I was under the impression she works for a rival news provider now.  Snafu?

– Cabbage leaves to reduce inflammation?  Is that a thing?  ‘Cause it sounds like something my mom’s grandmother might have made up if we lived in her Vietnamese village.