Category: Swamp Thing
-
Okay, the shaman does have a name but only Alec uses it. The whole character’s a mistake, so why dwell. This issue has social commentary, a magic ceremony to encourage Tefé to regrow her body, Swamp Thing fighting monsters and a few other things. There’s even a new supporting cast member who Wheeler doesn’t take…
-
Okay, the shaman does have a name but only Alec uses it. The whole character’s a mistake, so why dwell. This issue has social commentary, a magic ceremony to encourage Tefé to regrow her body, Swamp Thing fighting monsters and a few other things. There’s even a new supporting cast member who Wheeler doesn’t take…
-
Andy Helfer pops in for a nice little issue. Amazing how he’s never written the book before–or worked on it in any capacity (as far as I remember)–yet he does a pitch perfect story juxtaposing Tefé’s spirit form running away and a local woman’s family problems. Helfer even writes Abby well. Anyway, the issue also…
-
Not much of a hundredth issue celebration for Swamp Thing apparently. Unless you count Wheeler going back and retconning a lot of Moore and Veitch’s details about the Parliament of Trees and the new Earth Elemental storyline. And the time travel storyline. Lots of retconning. But Broderick can draw trees, so at least the trip…
-
Wheeler writes an interesting scene between Alec and Constantine. Alec finally loses control with him and lifts him up, presumably to do him harm. It’s a bit of a shock, since Alec’s always restrained in his anger towards him. Sadly, Broderick’s art ruins the scene. Strangely, Broderick handles the other plant guy just fine. Wheeler…
-
Thanks to guest penciller Tom Sutton–and a real understanding of the Arcane character–Wheeler brings his Tefé in Hell storyline to a successful close. Oh, and Pog. Can’t forgot Pog. Even though Sutton doesn’t draw him as well as Broderick (yes, I’m surprised too), the character really makes this finish work. Not even Sutton can make…
-
Besides Pog, about the only thing Broderick draws well this issue is Etrigan. Wheeler goes overboard into Hell’s politics as it accommodates new alien inhabitants–it’s really boring stuff and Broderick’s art is just too silly for it. Hell’s not horrifying, it looks like a toy commercial. It’s incredible Broderick couldn’t make bugs scary… scary bugs…
-
Interesting… Wheeler is able to sell the impossible here. He does another of his callbacks to Moore’s run–specifically the adorable alien, Pog–and makes it work. Even more interesting is how it comes after an issue of questionable plotting in regards to Swamp Thing mythology. Wheeler does a lot with the afterlife, with Arcane becoming a…
-
Wheeler tries so hard and it just doesn’t go quite right. Some of the problems are with the art. Broderick gets more ambitious in his composition with conversations, but he can’t visualize the stranger parts of the story. The issue involves Chester and Liz picketing a toxic waste plant, Alec and Abby’s parenting troubles, little…
-
Wheeler’s evening out. His ambition here is constrained–some kind of monster in a different wavelength of reality is the patron to a serial killer. It likes to hear jazz while people get murdered. Alec comes across some victims and investigates. There are some other plot contrivances–Abby in danger, Chester and Liz pop in–but the main…
-
Good grief, Wheeler’s just trying to wrap himself in Moore and Veitch’s runs now. He brings back one of Abby’s old jobs–along with an unlikable but nice woman who rehires here, which I think is from Veitch’s run–and also the kid terrorized by the monkey demon, one of Moore’s first stories. Not to mention Wheeler…
-
Wheeler is getting rather predictable. As far as Abby and Alec go–you know, Swamp Thing’s main characters–he has no idea what he’s doing. But he’s ambitious and enthusiastic. And well-versed in Swamp Thing. He seems to have read a lot of it; he just can’t write it. This issue concerns the bayou reversing to how…
-
Ew. I guess Broderick is getting a little better with the people, but now his Swamp Thing is an awkwardly shaped disaster. There’s no grace to the form, no majesty. Alec looks like a Mad Magazine caricature. As for Wheeler’s writing? Well, he’s doing the Three Wise Men, with Woodrue as one of them. Except…
-
Alcala’s not the best inker for Pat Broderick. Broderick takes over pencils this issue. Swamp Thing looks fine, so do the plants, but the people look wrong, like there’s not enough detail to them. Wheeler tries to put Alec on a psychedelic recap of his time travel adventures but it doesn’t work. The one panel…
-
The issue’s beautiful to be sure–Tom Yeates drawing Alec’s adventures in a far flung past, before the continents have even shifted, meeting with the first three trees in the Parliament. At the same time, Abby is preparing to have the baby and Constantine is trying to get back. But Wheeler’s way too ambitious. His enthusiasm…
-
Neil Gaiman sure does think he’s an inventive writer. The third person narration of the annual’s feature is exceptionally annoying but damn if Gaiman doesn’t write good dialogue. He tries too hard to show he’s familiar with Swamp Thing characters and situations, but when he’s got Chester sitting down and talking, it works. And Gaiman’s…
-
Doug Wheeler takes over the writing and does all right. He recaps the previous time travel adventures–this issue comes after an unexpected publishing delay–and sticks close to Alec. Wheeler basically rips off The Clan of the Cave Bear, with Alec hanging out with Neanderthals (guess what, they should have made it, not humans), while splitting…
-
Doug Wheeler takes over the writing and does all right. He recaps the previous time travel adventures–this issue comes after an unexpected publishing delay–and sticks close to Alec. Wheeler basically rips off The Clan of the Cave Bear, with Alec hanging out with Neanderthals (guess what, they should have made it, not humans), while splitting…
-
This issue has huge vertical double-page spreads from Yeates. Swamp Thing ends up in Camelot and the big pages give Veitch and Yeates a lot of space for their story. It’s not even a particularly big story, just very full of medieval imagery. Veitch lets the art do all the heavy lifting. There’s nothing particularly…
-
Veitch and artist Tom Yeates do a lovely job on this issue. Veitch constructs a rather complex narrative, where Swamp Thing’s import isn’t even explained until over halfway through the issue, and then in a layered exposition. He transitions from one kind of story to another and by the time Alec makes a visual appearance……
-
This issue’s extremely confusing. Veitch writes it assuming people know Hawk is Tomahawk’s son. In other words, a specialized audience at the time of its publication and an even more specialized one as time goes on. There are probably eight characters–all of them DC Western characters (except a couple for a surprise)–and Veitch has to…
-
Veitch really puts Abby through the wringer this issue. Instead of supervillains, she gets to deal with the American healthcare system. Comatose ex-husband (and government operative) Matt is now ringing up ten thousand a day and the hospital expects Abby to pay up. It’s a distressing issue. Without Swamp Thing, there’s not a lot of…
-
This issue of Swamp Thing continues the time traveling further into the past, with Swamp Thing meeting up with Enemy Ace. Except it’s not Alec’s story, nor is it Enemy Ace’s story… it’s Abby’s grandmother’s story. The issue belongs to Anton Arcane’s mother–she narrates it, she has the biggest story arc–and it’s downright disturbing. She’s…
-
Veitch sends Swamp Thing back to Easy Company, which works out quite well. The pacing is key–Veitch introduces Sgt. Rock, a medic, a bad guy and then a surprise bad guy for the finish. In the meantime, Alec is inhabiting the recently deceased body of an ancestor (or just someone with the same name… it’s…
-
Veitch does a sequel to one of the first Swamp Thing issues–I think back in the Wrightson days–and he captures some of that series’s cynicism. Mind you, he’s doing it with a superhero guest star and part of a big crossover event. I almost wish he hadn’t done it because it’s so downbeat. But it’s…
-
Poor Veitch. Swamp Thing is about to take part in another big DC crossover–they don’t announce it on the cover or in the text, but it’s Invasion!–and he’s got nothing. He basically sends Alec off into space again, or something like it. The finish, with Swamp Thing forced to escape Earth, looks exactly like the…
-
There’s something immediately compelling about Veitch’s take on Superman and Lois Lane. His Lex Luthor, fat and mean-spirited, is a little less interesting (if competently done), but his Lois and Clark are positively realistic. But Veitch also loves playing with the Superman standards–Clark changing into his costume while falling off a building, putting back on…
-
It’s another fill-in issue–Mandrake’s on pencils again (with Alcala inking); Stephen R. Bissette handles the writing chores. It’s also filler narratively, but very nice narrative filler. Bissette doesn’t have much for Abby to do, however. He sends her on another trip to the afterlife, which could be eventful, but instead she just hangs out with…
-
Did someone forget to tell Jamie Delano Abby is from Eastern Europe? She’s got a line about being a nervous sixteen year-old and it doesn’t seem very appropriate, given her Iron Curtain upbringings. Actually, the guest crew of Delano and Tom Mandrake (Alcala’s on inks still) mimic Veitch so well I had no idea he…
The Stop Button 