The New 52: Swamp Thing

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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by Crawler »

Holy crap. If you read only ONE DC book during this relaunch, make it this one.

I don't care about Swamp Thing. I enjoyed Alan Moore's run, but I've never really cared about the character. That doesn't matter, because this book is just so darned good.

Snyder also managed his mid-page jump panel again, which I still have no idea how he does that. He's the only writer I know of that can have something in the middle of a page that still makes you jump.

You also get a real sense of the characters. Despite having read Action and Justice League before this, this was my first real taste of "present day" Superman, as the others take place well in the past. Right here, in about 2 pages, Snyder gives Supes a rounded, clear personality, and you know exactly how Supes acts and thinks in the present day of the new DCU.

Snyder also manages to take a vague, unknown, unexplained threat and make it, well, threatening. Remember how the Justice League threat wasn't, and how it depended on prior knowledge to even register on the threat-o-meter at all? Absolutely not true here. I can't even explain what the threat is, what it does, or what it's after...but I know that it's powerful and dangerous.

Top notch writing, top notch art, top notch book.
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by Bamfette »

I know! this was amazing, my favorite so far. Yeah, don't want to spoil anything, this is a book to go into spoiler free if at all possible for sure. But the reveal of the 'bad guy' was just :o and then the reveal at the end....

Also, the art is fantastic. the artist kind of switches styles when depicting different types of things, and it's handled subtly and effectively as a visual cue that the spooky stuff is gonna be happening.
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by The Drastic Spastic »

After reading the reviews here I wanted to see how it would look to a complete newcomer. I don't know Swamp Thing at all, but this was cool. You definitely don't need to know anything about anything to enjoy it.
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by Crawler »

That's awesome, Draz! I thought it filled in enough blanks for you to know what was going on without having ever read it before, but it's hard to tell if that sort of thing is true when you have read it before.
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by The Drastic Spastic »

I'm probably missing out on some stuff people familiar with the character would pick up on but they explained enough (without looking like they were explaining anything) that it can stand alone. I don't feel like I'm missing anything which is the important part.
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

Ok, I need help. I enjoyed this book, but I feel like I was missing out on something. I know literally nothing about Swamp Thing except that he had a show or something. Or movie. Are there any basics I should know going in that will help me to understand and enjoy this more?
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

And this New 52 was supposed to be new-reader friendly.

Guy who runs my shop read it and was confused why they picked up where they left off with Swamp Thing/Superman/Batman/John Constantine as well.

My girlfriend, never touched a DC book in her life besides the Arkham City stuff, read through it and said "What just happened?".


I think some of the titles missed their targets. This is clearly one of 'em. I'll be sure to read it next time I'm at the G/F's and see if I can make sense of it.
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by Bamfette »

Snyder has said that everything will be explained. It may take a while to get to everything, though. Snyder is a slow burn kinda guy.

But basically, Alec Holland was a scientist who died in a swamp. Initially, everyone thought he became Swamp Thing, but in Alan Moore's run it was revealed that the 'Green' grafted his memories onto a creature made entirely of swamp vegetation. Alec was truly dead, Swamp thing just had his memories. In Blackest Night, Alec Holland was revived, I never read that, but I take it that all you need to know is that Alec is back, and has the memories of Swamp Thing. That's really all you need to know.

All I had ever read was Moore's Swamp Thing (lots came before and after his run) and that was years ago. I followed the story just fine.

btw in solicits for issue 4, it's revealed that this and Animal Man are both dealing with "The Other", and it's looking like the books are fairly closely linked. "The Other" looks to be a new counterpart to the Green (plant life) and the Red (animal life). Based on the mammoth creature and the undead critters in Animal Man seems to be related to dead things and decay. Normally, I'd be a bit irked about this. but Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder are best buddies and are no doubt working very closely with eachother, and both books are excellent, so I'm looking forward to it.

http://ifanboy.com/articles/first-look- ... -december/

[Edited on 19/9/11 by Bamfette]
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by Crawler »

NachtcGleiskette wrote:Ok, I need help. I enjoyed this book, but I feel like I was missing out on something. I know literally nothing about Swamp Thing except that he had a show or something. Or movie. Are there any basics I should know going in that will help me to understand and enjoy this more?
Bamfette pretty much covered it above. I don't think you'll need much more than Alec Holland was Swamp Thing, and then the events of the first issue happened. I thought it did a pretty good job of introducing everything you needed to enjoy it, but if you have any questions, that's what comics boards like this one are for! ;)
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

Thanks guys! I think a big thing is that I am 100% new to Swamp Thing, so I don't know the mythos at all. But I'm willing to give it a try :). The first issue was interesting enough to keep me for at least the next few.
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by Bamfette »

I just had a closer look at the cover for #4:

Image

At the bottom, look at the creatures. amoeba to trilobite to mudskipper, to dinosaur to ape. and they've all been swampified. So it seems to be saying that the Green has been making Swamp Things since the very beginnings of life on Earth. Intriguing.

I SO want to see a Swamp thing T-Rex inside the book now.
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

That is very interesting. I am very intrigued by the inference that Swamp Thing is a product of a divergent branch of the evolutionary tree, and not a lab accident. Completely new and different take. But then, would this not also infer that there is a race of swamp things?

And agreed on the T-Rex. That would be awesome!
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The New 52: Swamp Thing

Post by The Drastic Spastic »

NachtcGleiskette wrote:Thanks guys! I think a big thing is that I am 100% new to Swamp Thing, so I don't know the mythos at all. But I'm willing to give it a try :). The first issue was interesting enough to keep me for at least the next few.
All I knew was that there was some kind of mystical thing that lived in the swamp. I think he appeared in some early issues of Hellblazer but that first run (1-41?) was not my favorite and I barely remember any of it.

I thought the lab accident part was Man Thing, not Swamp Thing, but I guess they had basically the same origin.
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