Swamp Thing #1

More New 52. Here's one of DC's classic horror characters.

Title: Swamp Thing
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Yanick Paquette
Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn
Letterer: John J. Hill
Editor: Matt Idelson, Chris Conroy
Cover: Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn

Alec Holland has woken up in his human form with only faint dreamlike memories of three years as the Swamp Thing. He's quit his job as a researcher and tried his best to disappear. But you can't hide from nature. Or should that be you can't hide from YOUR nature. Both statements would seem to apply.

A fair portion of this issue is a conversation between Holland and Superman, who is investigating a series of strange mass animal fatalities. Oddly, Superman as depicted here is nothing like the Superman who was introduced in the debut of the new Action Comics (my review is here). They very much went for the traditional Superman persona for this story, which I believe is set five years ahead of Action Comics in the continuity. I would have liked to have seen at least a nod to the new version here. Sure, maybe that five years is all the maturing that Clark needed to be back to the Lawful-Good, 18-Wisdom version of Superman that we typically got before the relaunch, but my gut reaction was that this was a big inconsistency. And it seems like the kind of thing that would be easy to avoid, given the planning that went into the relaunch.

Once Supes leaves the scene, we very quickly exit superhero-mode and enter horror-mode, which usually works better for the Swamp Thing character. We just get a quick scene with the new villain that, while is explains nothing, is imaginative and definitely disturbing.

The Swamp Thing himself only appears in the ending cliffhanger, but the build-up to that scene is nice.

Aside from the issue I had with Superman (and the scene itself was good), this was really solid. It had the philosophical musings and the horror elements that we expect from Swamp Thing, and it did a nice job of building the tension up.

Rating: 7.5/10