By: Charles Soule (story), Jesus Saiz (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)
The Story: Alec channels his inner Jacques Cousteau.
The Review: I may not be reading Red Lanterns or Inhumans or the other umpteen comics Soule’s writing now, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and declare that he’s doing his most inspired work on Swamp Thing. The degree of imagination here definitely surpasses anything he’s doing Superman/Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, or even his creator-owned Letter 44. We may reach a point where the mythos of the mainstream Swamp Thing becomes as rich as its Vertigo ancestor.
Maybe even richer. As Alec takes on a sea-plant body and experiences the sensation of diffusing oxygen underwater, he marvels, “I can’t believe I haven’t tried this yet.” Me neither! It’s not lost on either Soule or Alec that there’s an entire other world of plant life he has yet to discover: “I need to spend more time down here. I should understand this. Just explore. Maybe even do a little science. For a change.” That would be a great change, though the resulting series wouldn’t be very much like your typical superhero book—which is no failing in my eyes, frankly.
But Soule is equally aware that he’s writing a series in a superhero world, hence: Aquaman, who’s really just eye-candy in this arc. Oh, he does come up with a few clever ideas to deal with Alec and the algae creature that threatens his kingdom, mostly by summoning various sea creatures to eat them. At one point, he poses the threat of a nuclear option when Alec’s attempt to subdue the creature initially goes awry. But just as in Aquaman #31, Arthur’s attempt to out-piss Alec is amusing because c’mon—Arthur, really? Alec nails it with a terse speech about who has the greater right to the sea:
“Plants pre-date people down here by billions of years. This is my kingdom more than it is yours. For the moment, I’m happy to share. But don’t push it.”
Fortunately, Alec’s ego has no opportunity to get completely out of control; he’s too troubled by the algae creature, identified as a Kreuzblütler or “crossblossom.” Its nature (a kind of infant Green manifesting as a primal avatar) is less important than how it came into existence in the first place. Our three ex-Parliamentarians explain that before Alec dissolved the body, the Parliament had a role in keeping the Green stable. The implication is clear: there are consequences to a coup, even of an abstract institution.
Significantly, all three of Alec’s predecessors look on the situation as his own fault. Wolf has simply thrown his hands up (“We couldn’t replace [the Parliament’s knowledge] if we tried.”), Weeds is openly hostile (“Even if we wanted to. Which I do not. You’ve dug your own grave. Lie in it.”) and even Jonah is brusque (“You’re writing your own story now. And if the tale is told poorly…well, you have no one to blame but yourself.”). With everyone piling blame onto Alec’s head, it’s easy to lose sight that he was trying to address a real threat in sealing the Parliament, which no one acknowledges, by the way. Still, it’s fair to reevaluate whether Alec went too far in doing as he did.
Underwater settings are always a great test of an artist’s mettle, to see if they can really work with a completely different environment, or if they just draw as they’ve always drawn, only with more bubbles and a blue sheen. Saiz, who’s growing in stature on this series with every issue, puts in just as much lush detail into the creatures and landscape of the water as he does to the surface. Most delightful is the velvety texture of Alec’s sea-body, which sways and flutters with the slightest movement in the water, so unlike the static bark and moss of his body on land.
Conclusion: Soule’s best attempt to inject some action to the series falls flat, but there’s some wonderful ideas and art here nonetheless.
Grade: B
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – This is just DC’s month for killing off endangered animals, isn’t it? After all those polar bears in Action Comics
and Futures End, we now have seven dugong fatalities. While they’re at it, they should roast a few pandas, too.
Grade
Conclusion