Swamp Thing #34 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Javier Pina (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: There ain’t no plan like a Weeds plan.

The Review: In the superhero genre, where it’s common practice for writers to constantly recycle established characters, it’s rare to encounter new characters who are as rich or intriguing as the old ones. Soule has been on a streak in that regard. True, it’s not as if Swamp Thing had a whole host of characters to draw from, so he had incentive to create new ones. But these creations have become a crucial part of his run’s enjoyment, which is no small achievement in this biz.

It’s possibly to classify Soule’s characters as either heroes or villains, but all of them are somewhat more complicated than that. Wolf and Weeds may be antagonists as a consequence of plotting against Alec, but their grievances against him are legitimate. Alec may disclaim any responsibility for their fates, arguing that it’s they who failed to roll with the punches, but this ignores his role in delivering the blows. After unleashing them from the Green, he never did give much thought to their fates afterward. If he had, maybe he could’ve kept them fixed on what they have instead of what they had.

Admittedly, that’s a pretty big maybe. Wolf seems adaptable enough, but Weeds isn’t the type to be distracted from what she wants. She freely acknowledges that unlike Wolf, she’s not a planner: “I seize opportunities as they present themselves, and make the world do what I want.” This single-minded selfishness paints her evil with rather broad strokes, but Soule captures her sociopathic psychology so well that you can’t consider her archetypical either. As she threatens a truck driver into taking her and the transformed Wolf to a nearby hospital, he pleads, “Please. I got kids.”

Unheeding, she stabs him through the neck. “Well, that’s not my fault.”

For all her lack of planning, Weeds carries out her impromptu operation with great effectiveness. She understands an essential truth about heroes: they can be manipulated by the innocent lives at stake, even if there’s only one (or two, as the case may be). Between that and her own depraved and malignant heart,* she gets Alec exactly where she wants him. Unfortunately, she’s foiled by Wolf’s sudden turnaround, which he explains, “I would rather fail than succeed this way. There is no art to it.” Sounds like Soule wimping out to me. At that point, Weeds and Wolf have all the cards in their hand; for Wolf to fold just because it’s not the hand he wants is supremely silly.

It’s disappointing to close the curtain on Wolf and Weeds this way, but at least Jonah gets a much more satisfying end, mainly because it’s not the end of Jonah at all. Given the flavors the ex-Parliamentarians have given to the series, it’d be a huge waste to get rid of them all, so it’s nice to see Jonah will stay on in an advisory capacity as Alec’s personal Parliament, or “regent,” as he says. This does, however, mark an end to Jonah and Capucine’s sweetly innocent love affair, and their parting is hopelessly, romantically tragic. Maybe at the end of her life, Alec will save her from Etrigan by placing her in the Green as well.

I am telling you, Swamp Thing has the cushiest artistic scenario of any title because it’s the only one I know of whose fill-in artist is the exact equal of its highly reputable regular artist. Like Jesus Saiz did last month, Pina stretches his horror chops in drawing Wolf’s demonic form and triumphs. The reveal is genuinely creepy, giving even the creatures of Rotworld a run for their money. A gruesome mixture of fleshy and sharp edges, a crawling cancerous growth with the oversized fangs and claws of an alien predator, colored a sickly shade of pinkish-purple by Wilson, like exposed flesh gone gangrenous. Disgusting, but awesome work just the same.

Conclusion: The issue reaches a climax, then stumbles downward after a most ridiculous plot twist.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * The legal field doesn’t come up with many striking turns of phrase, but that one’s easily the best.

– The one book Jonah got to read on Earth: Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Excellent choice, although given his love affair with Capucine, maybe Love in the Time of Cholera would’ve been more appropriate.