Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Yanick PaquetteAlec Holland thought he knew the history of the Swamp Thing — but he was wrong. The creature’s roots run deeper than he knows, and the Parliament of Trees intends to make him understand the responsibility he wants so desperately to avoid! With this issue, the mythology of the Swamp Thing branches out in ways you never saw coming — don’t miss it!
And so we’ve reached month #2 of the DCnU and Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette have given us our second helping of their no-boubt sprawling Swamp Thing epic. Does this issue stand up to last month’s fantastic debut?
Clickeroo on down to find out!
I suppose the one thought that consistently nagged at me as I read this issue is the fact that before I read the first issue of this series, the grand total of comics I had read with Swamp Thing in the title hovered unwaveringly over 0. Which is not to say that Scott Snyder did not explain the wheres and what fores of the issue, which he absolutely did. I just felt that given the deep, deep history that the character has that there was more that I should/could know to help illuminate this issue, even if I did not need more in order to UNDERSTAND the issue. Though I suppose that has less to do with the comic itself and more to do with my relationship with the character of Swamp Thing.
Immediately after reading the issue, one of my fellow writers scoffed at the sheer amount of exposition featured in this issue, and indeed there is quite a lot of it. Snyder has always stuck me as a writer with a very distinct sense of pace when it comes to his comics, seemingly like he plans his stories not with issues themselves in mind, but blocks of time in which to do specific things that he then fits into the constraints of single issue storytelling. That said, it is very clear that he did NOT want to spend an inordinate amount of “time” bringing the reader up to speed on The Green, the Parliament of Trees or introducing the threat of the Sethe. Its clear that while he held those things to be important, he wanted to get them out of the way sooner rather than later in order to get the story focused back on Alec Holland’s inner struggles and the morbid threats he now faces as a result of the Sethe. Hence, exposition out the ying yang.
While everything said certainly held a deep and significant purpose, it did not help the issue flow very well at all. A well crafted comic book allows the reader to absorb the words and the art almost simultaneously as opposed to existing as two unique entities. That balance is broken, simply put, when the script takes a few too many bites and unfortunately this book fell slightly victim to that. At times I actually had to stop reading the captions in order to go back and look at the art for the purposes of review, and while I genuinely understand WHY it happened, it did affect my reading of the book.
That having been said, looking at the two halves of the book as separate units, there is just as much to love as there was for the first issue, if not more now that the story is beginning to flesh itself out a little more. However, the scenes that stand out directly are the ones where we see A.H. Rodgers and Holland interacting with each other (as opposed to the scenes of Rodgers just talking and Holland listening) because they created a very stark contrast between what Holland is and the part of his existence that he is avoiding. What is Vs. what could/should/will be is one of the deeply human concepts that drives this monstrous book, and its great to see it continuing along.
Another consistently fantastic attribute is Paquette’s art. I’ve made no attempt to hide my dislike of his work in the past, but good lord its a lot like taking in work from another artist on this book. His characters are much more well defined and their facial expressions are worlds more emotive than anything I’ve seen from him in the past. However, the real treat is simply the plant life present in this book. Given his past as an aspiring entomologist, he clearly knows his way around vegetation and plant life (and bugs, lots and lots of bugs). That level of sheer know-how and deep research is absolutely clear just watching the small details on the back of Swamp Thing and the nature that surrounds him. However the best compliment I can give the book is that there is SO much depth and detail to the work that stopping and looking only at the art helps you see something new each time.
Overall, while this issue faltered in a few places, the story being told and presented is still very very strong and in terms of sheer building of suspense and mystery it is unequivocally succeeding in making me want more.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – Buy
