30 Days of Comics, Day 6: Swamp Thing #1

Swamp Thing is an intellectual property that I didn’t even realize belonged to DC until a few years ago. As a result, most of my prior knowledge comes from the Saturday Morning Cartoon, the live action TV series, the live action movies and wikipedia. There’s a lot of love out there for the ‘ol Swampy and as such this relaunch has been highly anticipated by some.

Our comic starts with Alec Holland telling a rather morbid story about working in his father’s old florist shop. As he tells this story, we’re taken to various places in the DC Universe where a series of mass animal deaths is taking place. In Metropolis, flocks of birds drop from the sky as Clark Kent and the Daily Planet staff watch in disbelief. In the Batcave, Batman’s equipment is covered in the corpses of spontaneously dieing bats. Under the sea, Aquaman looks on as schools of fish eerily float and rot. It’s a pretty haunting scene and artist Yanick Paquette does a fantastic job conveying the gravity of this event.

Don't think about why there's a T-Rex in the Batcave; there just is.

Alec Holland himself is narrating from Louisiana; he’s trying to keep a low profile working as part of a construction team. He even goes so far as to hide his past life as a botanist from his coworkers. Holland’s secrecy seems to be out of a fear of returning to his other previous life, as Swamp Thing.

Next we’re taken to Arizona, where a set of mastodon bones has been unearthed at a dig site. The unattended bones are suddenly disturbed when a violent sandstorm comes out of nowhere and pulls them from the ground.Holland continues to work at the construction site and provides us with an inner monologue to fill us in on his backstory and how he got where he is now.As you may have guessed from those shiny red boots in the corner, Superman arrives to pay the good doctor a visit. He tells Holland about the series of bizarre animal deaths that have been occurring worldwide and asks for his input, figuring that as Swamp Thing, he would be most connected to the natural world. Holland bluntly tells him that he doesn’t know anything and that he never really was Swamp Thing. Superman asks how he’s adapting to his new life. Holland explains that he’s frustrated; he can’t return to his old life and his work because he still has Swamp Thing’s memories. Superman tries to encourage him by saying that the world would benefit from his work and that he should give botany a try again. Holland proceeds to elaborate on his frustrations.

He goes on to explain that he had a dream where he envisioned the world that his Bio-Restorative Formula would create; a world covered and choked by green. As a result, he threw away all his samples and explains to Superman that he just doesn’t want to be found.

Back at the Arizona dig site, the excavation team returns to find their bones missing. They argue over what could have happened before a strange noise prompts them to investigate. The head of the team climbs over the ridge to the source of the noise and instead of thieves finds something truly horrifying. I can’t explain it; you have to see it yourself.He tries to communicate with the creature, stating that he’s a scientist and asking if it can understand him. The creature responds by sending a fly to bite him, which compels the man to break.his.own.neck.Of course, a broken neck ain’t no thing, so the scientist keeps walking towards his comrades and pulls a knife on them. The remaining two flee the scene in their jeep, but they too are bitten and compelled to join the backwards head club. The creature then proceeds to walk on two legs and marches through the desert with its newly enthralled servants.With that grisly and beautifully illustrated scene behind us, we rejoin Alec Holland in his motel room. He’s in the throes of a nightmare as he relives the night he became Swamp Thing. As he awakens from the nightmare, he finds himself surrounded by plant life in his room. He flees in terror from the encroaching plants and retrieves the last sample of his Bio-Restorative formula from his wall-safe.He runs outside with the sample and prepares to angrily throw it into the bayou until he’s stopped by an old “friend.”
Our comic ironically ends with the title card “Raise Dem Bones” as Swamp Thing prevents Dr. Holland from throwing away the formula.

I’d highly recommend this book just based on the artwork alone but the writing is also top notch. There’s a definite sense that the entire creative team has a perfect understanding of the kind of world Swamp Thing inhabits and embodies. That energy translates into a book that’s easy to immerse yourself in. The character of Dr. Holland is highly empathetic and the “villain”, while not yet fully established, is terrifying and suggests a legitimate threat. I’ll definitely be coming back for this one next month.

That wraps up Swamp Thing; come back tomorrow for Static Shock #1.