I think I figured out what Collins is doing with Abby. She’s turned her into a generic nagging wife character; gone is the Eastern Europe history, gone is motherhood, gone is her strength as a person. Even though writers have occasionally been incompetent when it comes to Abby… Collins is the first to reduce her to a gender role. It’s odd. And rather unfortunate, because Swamp Thing needs Abby.

There’s one good bit when Tefé’s little flower people getting free will and warring with one another. It’s almost enough to offset the continued indication Alec and Abby have “regular”–let’s try mammalian–sex. Maybe I was wrong, maybe Collins hasn’t seen Return of Swamp Thing because even it got that activity right. By using the Moore explanation, of course.

Speaking of Moore, Collins continues to break apart lots of his work. It’s an okay issue in a now clumsy series.

CREDITS

Home Sick; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, Vertigo.

Eaton (and Collins) give Swamp Thing long hair. Why? Because he’s losing control thanks to toxic waste and forgetting he’s not a man. Or something along those lines.

Apparently Alec can reanimate dead wood–a baseball bat–but he can’t get rid of this toxic waste. And Abby’s allowed to leave the swamp to visit Chester but Alec can’t leave to save the world.

Oh, can’t forget–Chester never thinks to say goodbye to Alec too.

Reading Swamp Thing is now just watching Collins make every single character unlikable and unsympathetic–hell, she never rehabilitated Tefé from killing her cat. It doesn’t offer anything else, except endless bad narration from Alec.

Someone else probably could have made the mundane plot work, but Collins isn’t cutting it. There’s nothing in the comic she seems to like. One can’t blame her, there’s nothing to like.

Well, it does read fast, I suppose.

CREDITS

Swamp Fever; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Kim DeMulder; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, Vertigo.

Abby gets busy with the mindless clone Alec left–apparently all he programmed it to do was get busy, as it does nothing else all issue (and Collins’s understanding of Alec and Abby’s sex life is totally different from Moore or Veitch’s).

There’s a lot of narration from Alec about the Green and pollution and other malarkey. It’s all pointless, all questionably written, all a waste of time. Collins’s writing is stale at this point. She clearly didn’t have the mileage for an ongoing; it’s quite unfortunate as she started strong. Maybe editorial was just bad.

Eaton has some bad art this issue I’m sure, but the rest of the comic’s so lame it doesn’t matter.

Collins is doing whatever she can to make Abby the bad guy, even when Alec is wrong too. There’s no communication between them anymore. Collins unfortunately just uses their dialogue to propel the plot.

CREDITS

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

Whether intentional or not, the mad scientist lab and experiment in this issue remind a lot of The Return of Swamp Thing. Collins has embraced a–pardon the expression–comic book goofiness in her villain, General Sunderland’s daughter. It often plays like a parody of a good Swamp Thing comic as opposed to a real one.

For example, Alec promises Abby he won’t leave the swamp early in the issue (their first scene, actually). Of course he does by the finish. Collins doesn’t trust the reader to remember. It’s shockingly contrived.

Ditto for Chester, who is again announcing he’s leaving the comic. I find it hard to believe he and Abby hang out at diners when they need to gab. All of Collins’s inventiveness is gone at this point.

Maybe it’s because Eaton’s so weak. His art is terrible this issue, either awkward or static or both.

It’s very lame.

CREDITS

Project Proteus; writer, Nancy A. Collins; penciller, Scot Eaton; inker, Greg Baker; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Stuart Moore; publisher, DC Comics.

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.