This issue features Swamp Thing and company–I’m tempted to start singling Liz out because I think she remains a character, but I’m not sure yet–on an island with a bunch of scenes from classic movies. You get to see Tom Yeates, for a couple pages, do a King Kong adaptation. It’s awesome.
Unfortunately, Pasko established himself as pretty serious early on in the series and doing an issue with a giant gimmick is beneath him. Oh, there’s a whole plight of the Vietnam vet thing going on too, but Pasko’s handling of it is far from innovative. It’s a serious subject and Pasko’s ambitious to try to discuss it… It’s just a bad execution.
The awesome artwork easily makes up for the story’s bumps though.
The Stranger backup too discusses war, but in a far broader sense. Barr doesn’t do a terrible job, but these backups are all pretty useless.
Swamp Thing continues his cruise ship adventure, ending up fighting a giant undersea monster. It reminds a lot of the first series, only this time there are subplots. Casey, Swamp Thing’s former charge, has turned out to be an evil psychic. Or something along those lines. It means more action scenes for Yeates, who handles some of them beautifully—Swamp Thing getting knocked around by a tentacle, for example.
Yeates’s art takes a strange turn this issue. He spends less time on Swamp Thing than he does on the supporting cast. There’s a lot of action this issue too—Pasko does a great job pacing, considering how many big events occur—and even those Yeates handles oddly. He hurries through them, not taking the time to elaborate. Like I said though, his work rendering the supporting cast in still moments shows a great deal of work.
So Swamp Thing now has his supporting cast… at least for now. Casey the mute wasn’t cutting it.
This issue concerns a demon who possesses people in order to feed on children’s souls. The children in question must be murdered, of course. The demon targets minority children as it turns out their troubled souls taste the best. So it’s definitely disturbing, but not as terrible as he could have made it. In some ways, it’s a cop out but Pasko’s Swamp Thing is episodic. Any different handling would have been insensitive.
And here’s where Pasko hits his stride. The issue features Swamp Thing versus a town of teen vampires who have not just ruined the town but done so out of boredom. Though I suppose their argument vampires don’t have to worry about money rings true.
Pasko immediately identifies the bad guys this issue—not just the regular bad guys, but the bad organization too. It’s the Sunderland Corporation and I’m pretty sure they’re around the rest of the series.
For his first issue, Martin Pasko basically just rewinds a little from where the seventies series left Swamp Thing and picks up like it’s just another issue. There’s an ignorant small town (this time in the South), a helpless child everyone calls a witch and Swamp Thing’s miserable. It’s like nothing has changed.
