Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Giant #1

I believe this is a Walmart exclusive, at least that's the only place I've ever seen these new DC 100-Page Comic Giant editions. I bought this one at a Walmart in Massachusetts during our Christmas visit home to the USA.

Title: Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Giant
Issue: 1
Date: 2018
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Brian Azzarello, Dan Didio, Paul Dini, Steve Niles, Mikey Way, J. Michael Straczynski, Denny O'Neil, Len Wein
Artist: Greg Caputo, Jonathan Glapion, Dustin Nguyen, Ian Churchill, Norm Rapmuno, Dean Ormston, Mateus, Jesus Saiz, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Berni Wrightson
Colorist: FCO Plascencia, Rod Reis, Chris Peter, Trish Mulvhill
Letterer: Travis Lanham, Rob Leigh
Editor: Dave Wielgosz, Chris Conroy, Joey Cavalieri, Julius Schwartz

This is a mass-market special featuring one new Swamp Thing story, and seven horror-themed reprints from all over the DC Universe (there isn't a one-to-one listing of the original sources, but the stories come from Batman, Brave and the Bold, House of Secrets, and a couple of the past DC Halloween Specials). The lineup of creators is impressive, and a decent variety of DC Comics characters are featured as well, with the Swamp Thing getting the first and last stories.

First up was the new Swamp Thing story, featuring Twiglet interrupting some Halloween mayhem that turns out to be more than just treats. She tells a story of her first meeting with the Swamp Thing, before giving the bad guys a more personal introduction. This was the only story that was in the current continuity, and it felt rather choppy and incomplete, with a lot of vague references to a being that I assume is going to be a major Swamp Thing Villain going forward.

Next up was Blue Devil and Enchantress in a rather blatant and very dark-comedy parody of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, with enough names changed for plausible deniability. My main reaction was mostly just to be a bit surprised that they went there. The story itself didn't have much to it.

There also wasn't that much to the Zatanna story, which involved Halloween candy tainted with the Scarecrow's fear-drug. This was a pretty straightforward in why Zatanna is not someone you want to piss off. Ever.

Next up, and odd Superman vs. zombies story. The zombies are magical kryptonite zombies or something which makes this a bit more of a challenge, but it's Superman's reluctance to kill which is what first gets in the way. The ending is strange, but visually fun.

"The Ballad of Jonathan Crane" puts Jonathan in the place of Ichabod in a variant of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It has a fun Gotham by Gaslight style Elseworlds vibe, and features some fuin guest appearances.

Another odd story features the surprising team of Etrigan and Aquaman as they battle, well, Cthulhu basically. This one is a blatant homage (bordering on ripoff) of Lovecraft. The artwork on this story was great, and I am happy to report with Etrigan was in full-rhyming mode, which always makes for a better Demon story. It was fun to see Aquaman in a horror story, and he fit the flavor of it surprisingly well.

The Batman story "Night of the Reaper" was a particularly dark tale of the Dark Knight, all set around a superhero-themed costume parade and costume party. The strangest thing in this story was that because the background characters were mostly ordinary folks cosplaying, the artists got to include a bunch of Marvel characters in the crowds. There were definitely some in-jokes thrown into was was otherwise a grim story about Nazi war criminals and revenge.

Last up was the classic Swamp Thing origin story by the original team of Wein and Wrightson from House of Secrets #92 in 1971. This is still a fun horror story that holds up well, even if it is not the current incarnation of DC's classic monster.

Overall, this is a fun book with a lot of really quirky things going on. Between the various bits of history and the literary and pop culture references, this book should bring a few smiles to the faces of most geeky readers. The stories generally try a bit too hard to be clever, and most are not really particularly good at being genuine horror stories, but I still found it to be a fun book with a real all-star lineup of creators to sample.

Rating: 7/10

Ultimate Spider-Man Premier Comic #1

Random freebie book from the backlog.

Title: Ultimate Spider-Man Premier Comic
Issue: 1
Date: May, 2012
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Chris Eliopoulis, Paul Dini
Editor: Jordan D. White

This is a freebie-edition comic adaptation of the first episode of the Ultimate Spider-Man animated TV Show, which runs on the Disney Channel.

This is primarily a reboot. It doesn't cover the traditional origin story, although it does mention those events in several places. Instead, it is set about a year into Peter Parker's career as Spider-Man, and the main plot point is an offer for Spider-Man to join SHIELD.

This is very much set in Marvel's cinematic universe, and there are plenty of references dropped throughout the story.

I liked most of the characters in this. Flash Thompson comes off as a bit one-dimensional (though no more so than in his early appearances in The Amazing Spider-Man). But otherwise, the characters were fleshed out nicely. Even Aunt May was given some good details to work with.

The villains were the Frightful Four, and they were not particularly effective. Fortunately there were some bigger threats lurking in the background.

The book is illustrated with cells directly from the episode, and it's a bit hit-or-miss, especially in the fight scenes. There were a few moments in the climactic fight that really needed a big panel, and a few moments where it was hard to tell what was going on.

Rating 5/10

Countdown 51

From the backlog. This was a 2007 freebie that introduced Countdown, which was the lead-in series for Final Crisis. If only it really had been final.

Title: Countdown
Issue: 51
Date: 2007
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Paul Dini
Penciler: Jesus Saiz
Inker: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colorist: Tom Chu
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Jeanine Schaefer, Mike Marts

The Countdown series starts at #51 and counts backwards. Get it? This is the freebie version of the first issue (#51) and boy am I glad I didn't pay money for this.

We get things started with some impaled bodies right off the bat. Once the reader's attention has been gotten, it's revealed that Darkseid is the villain of the moment. He proceeds to use several sentences to say nothing.

But we quickly segue to... Duela (Dent), the Joker's Daughter? REALLY? Okay, awesomeness points for the writers being quite possibly the only people besides me who even remember this character. She attempts to kidnap a pop star and has the attempt thwarted by the Red Hood. She throws a slinky at him. That proves to be about as effective as one might imagine, but they exchange some (un)pleasantries and she makes her escape via the rooftops. I guess that would be called a draw.

Next up is Mary Batson, who has lost her powers. Moving on.

Trickster and Heat Wave are... I wasn't really sure what the point of that scene was. They're either planning to attack the Flash or not. Pied Piper eavesdrops. Still nothing happening. This is becoming a theme.

Back to Duela, who is killed off in short order by a dude in Monitor gear (I think) who is out to wipe out dimensional anomalies. And when he reports back to base, it looks like Ray Palmer may be next on the list.

Wow, this was supposed to get people to want to read a year-long weekly series? Really? Besides the return of Duela, there was nothing in here to care about. And I only care about Duela because I remember the obscure Batgirl story that introduced her ("I'm Duela Dent. I'm Two-Face's daughter. I was always a disappointment to him. I'm just trying to win his approval." "Disappointment? He was hoping for a boy?" "No, he was hoping for twins." :) ).

Oh, and then they killed her.

But hey, keep in mind that back in 2007, this was the lead-in to a HUGE crossover event that would change the DC Universe FOREVER.

Oh, wait.

Rating: 3.5/10