The Stop Button

Swamp Thing is not a series with many weak writers. It’s had a couple recent ones, but then Josh Dysart resurrected it. So Scott Snyder’s got a difficult task—how to make Swamp Thing part of the DC Universe without getting rid of everything good about the series.

This issue suggests it’ll be a bumpy ride. Superman shows up (along with some other nonspeaking superhero cameos) and Alec Holland—the resurrected Holland, who has Swamp Thing’s memories and emotions but isn’t Swamp Thing… or something along those lines—spouts all this expository dialogue about how he feels.

It’s okay. It is okay. Snyder nails the emotional state. But why he uses expository dialogue instead of interior monologue (like he primarily does throughout the issue) is inexplicable. Unless he wanted a Superman cameo.

The series could go either way. Though Yanick Paquette is a little too loose for the plant stuff.

C+ 

CREDITS

Raise Dem Bones; writer, Scott Snyder; artist, Yanick Paquette; colorist, Nathan Fairbairn; letterer, John J. Hill; editors, Chris Conroy and Matt Idelson; publisher, DC Comics.