It’s an anniversary issue and Collins brings back Arcane. She makes him somewhat comical, as he possesses baby Tefé and has her running around resurrecting his “evil dead.” I couldn’t believe they used that phrase. Clearly Sam Raimi doesn’t trademark well.

Abby and Alec freak out, the dead jazz guy shows up to help them, it goes on and on. There’s more of the Alec narration–not a lot, thank goodness. Collins doesn’t seem to understand the place of Arcane in the series. In Alec’s narration, he blames his battle with Arcane for not discovering his true elemental nature.

Maybe I read a different Swamp Thing but I’m pretty sure everyone used Arcane sparingly. Until he got to Hell; then he became good comic relief.

The cliffhanger–a soft one–foreshadows Arcane’s new body to inhabit. It’s not much of a surprise.

Collins has run out of ideas. It’s unfortunate.

CREDITS

Family Reunion; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, DC Comics.

I think Eaton thinks he’s doing a Steve Bissette impression. If so, it’s not producing any good art. Lots of static panels and busy line work don’t make up for some actual movement.

There’s story movement though. Collins sends Chester away this issue–after Eaton’s practically turned him into an action hero, at least physically–and the evil Sunderland corporation is moving full steam ahead against Alec.

Except Alec knows about them, so why doesn’t he jump into a fern at their corporate headquarters? Because Collins makes him very, very weak except in the elemental action scenes. She’s pretty much spent all of her good momentum from when she took over. A three parter about a doctor moonlighting as a brainwashed assassin isn’t a good Swamp Thing.

The writing on Abby is getting weak too. With the nanny around, Abby’s become completely disinterested in her kid.

It’s dreadfully tepid stuff.

CREDITS

Punctures; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, DC Comics.

Collins doesn’t improve here. Eaton might a little, even though his pencils become incredibly static. He finally puts noses on the cast, which outweighs his other inabilities at a talking heads issue.

But Collins. She splits the Sunderland threat apart–one from the maniacally evil Sunderland daughter herself and another, tangentially related one from the gubernatorial candidate Alec embarrassed–but both threats are idiotic. Even if Alec can’t sense when people are plotting against him–all he does this issue is bond a little with Lady Jane–they still don’t need to use goofy plans.

Swamp Thing hasn’t felt so contrived in a long time. Collins is mostly just using keywords and catchphrases. I hope so she recovers soon, because when she turns pacifist hippie Chester into Rocky Balboa, the issue just collapses. It becomes a spoof of itself.

Even cliffhanger’s absent any tension. Collins is spreading everything too thin.

CREDITS

The Eye of the Needle; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, DC Comics.

Oh, good grief. All those nice things I said about Collins and this issue’s how she repays me.

Lady Jane has moved in. She apparently knows to read Tefé storybooks; there’s an implication Abby never did. Collins seems to have forgotten how she wrote Abby just a few issues ago (you know, as a protagonist and not a jerk).

Collins brings back Sunderland in the form of a previously undisclosed daughter to the late general. She’s out to get Alec, except she hasn’t been keeping tabs on him over the years. It’s all a coincidence she discovers he’s still around. Instead of, I don’t know, performing in Las Vegas. It’s idiotic.

Then, to make matters even worse, Collins brings in a goofy-named villain. It’s maybe Swamp Thing’s first goofy-named villain. It shouldn’t have any.

Eaton’s art is terrible. He’s painfully flat.

Just like the rest of the comic.

CREDITS

Laissez les Bon Temps Rulers; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, DC Comics.

Bad news, good news. Eaton’s the regular penciller. In addition to Tefé’s undocumented nanny, Lady Jane, not having a nose, none of the other female characters seem to have much of one either. Certainly not enough to make their faces three dimensional.

Good news is Collins can write, which I already knew, but she choses to do so here. She tells Lady Jane’s origin story and she does it a lot better than the rest of the issue. It’s an unhappy story of early industrial age England, told from a woman’s perspective; it’s excellent.

The stuff with Alec being unsympathetic to Abby? Not excellent. Collins skips establishing Alec approving of Lady Jane as a nanny so his position on the matter makes no sense.

It’s only a few pages in the issue, but enough to show–juxtaposed against the Lady Jane origin–where Collins’s storytelling interests lie.

It’s mostly great.

CREDITS

Lady Jane; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, DC Comics.

For the entire issue–which is incredibly fast paced as Alec and Abby try to find a kidnapped Tefé–Scot Eaton’s pencils are fine. There aren’t any amazing panels, but it all flows rather nicely. Until the final reveal, where Eaton goes entirely flat. It’s a full page too. It ends the issue poorly.

Otherwise, the issue’s pretty. Alec acting as a tracking dog for the cops is unlikely; I don’t believe he can’t sense Tefé’s location–can’t he talk to the trees or grass around her–but it’s dramatically successful. Collins hasn’t found a good balance for his power.

She also has a lot of exposition, which is again about the purple vengeance monster. It’s nothing she didn’t cover in the previous issue and now it’s just text to slow the reader. It doesn’t offer anything.

Collins tries to do too much this issue. She should’ve taken her time.

CREDITS

The Bad Man; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, DC Comics.

A couple big things happen this issue. First is Collins’s handling of the Parliament of Trees. They haven’t been in the book since she came on and she handles them much differently than her predecessor. There’s practically a line of dialogue about it, about how things are going to be different from now on.

And much better. They’re not warriors or superheroes, but trees.

Then there’s the cat. Tefé kills her pet cat, which has always stuck with me. It kicks off a big arc–as I remember–but it’s a powerful scene. Collins hasn’t gotten into the big stuff with Swamp Thing yet; she’s kept Alec’s stories small. This one implies rather big things as Alec’s not able to rear Teré.

The purple revenge bog monster appears too, with Collins finally wrapping up that story arc (her first). Besides the monster’s (unnecessary) origin retelling, the issue is rather excellent.

CREDITS

A Child’s Garden; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, DC Comics.