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The Noob 52: 'Swamp Thing'
As many far-more-informed comic book fans know, DC recently completely relaunched pretty much all of their properties; cancelling all current story lines and starting from scratch in an experiment known as The New 52. The design of this experiment was to entice new readers by giving them a chance to come in on the ground floor on any of 52 brand new titles. As someone pathetically out of touch with almost everything related to comic books and comic book characters, I decided to test this experiment by diving headfirst into each and every issue. I will judge these issues based on the art, the story, and how well the writers made this alien world accessible to noobs like me. I will end each piece by explaining what I now understand about the worlds of these characters, based exclusively on what The New 52 has taught me with no other (or very little) previous frame of reference. Join me, won’t you?
Title: ‘Swamp Thing’
Writer(s): Scott Snyder
Artist(s): Yanick Paquette
Going In, What Do I Know?
Being a connoisseur, or rather indiscriminate consumer, of all things B-cinema, I have seen both of the 'Swamp Thing' films. I didn’t harbor much delusion at the time that what I was seeing was a faithful screen translation of Swamp Thing canon. What I did discern is that Dr. Alec Holland was a botanist transformed by a laboratory explosion into the creature known as Swamp Thing. His power is…nope, guess I couldn’t even tell you that. But I do remember plenty of other monsters created for him to fight.
Artwork:
Artistically, there’s a great deal to admire in 'Swamp Thing.' The construction of the bone monster is at once shadowy and clearly menacing. The facial detail throughout the issue is striking and ends up serving the later scenes in which people have their heads snapped all the way around; the anguish of that transformation is painfully and eloquently communicated. I love the fine detail on natural elements as well; the birds and plants in close-up are highly defined. I also love the ashen, fading borders between the panels during the horrific moments; creating an effective atmosphere of chaos.
Story:
What I think is interesting about 'Swamp Thing' in terms of the New 52 is that, contextually, it’s sort of the exact middle ground between doing an honest-to-goodness reboot and simply continuing a previous storyline. There are many references made to something that happened to Dr. Holland that has returned him to human form and makes him not want to be Swamp Thing anymore, which I assume was covered in a previous issue. However, not knowing all the details right up from did nothing to detract from my interest in this story and where it was heading. Because he was human again, even though clearly this character has a preexisting history, it created the opportunity for the man to become the monster all over again. The catastrophic, worldwide “natural” event coupled with the monster in the desert presented plenty of fascinating horror elements, which will always play well with this noob.
What The New 52 Taught Me:
Swamp Thing very clearly exists in the same world as The Justice League. He’s not a member, but he’s on their radar…or at least Superman’s radar. He was in fact caught in a lab explosion and was, at one point, Swamp Thing. He’s found a way to become human again and has troubling dreams of his experiences as the creature. His specific powers are still a bit vague, other than his being deeply in tune with nature.
Will I Remain A Noob?
I definitely want to continue reading 'Swamp Thing.' The artwork is fantastic, the story is chock full of horror elements to compliment the character and hopefully will continue to define the tone of the series. The issue gave me just enough info on Swamp Thing himself to pique my interest in the character while not actually telling me much about him at all. It’s impressive. The cliffhanger ending is quite bizarre, and I am wholly intrigued.
Like the Noob 52? You'll love 'Noobs with Boobs' over at Lounge Geeks!
Comment
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Comment by Virgil Tibbs on November 6, 2011 at 9:02pm -
I'm a 19 year old who isn't computer literate; yes, they do exist!
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Comment by The Spill Crew on November 6, 2011 at 12:01pm -
@Mister Tibbs - If you click on the "Noob 52" tag at the bottom of the article, it will pull up a list of every article that is tagged that (aka all of them). That's what tags are for. :)
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Comment by Virgil Tibbs on November 5, 2011 at 10:08pm
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Brian, is there an archive for "The Noob 52" or do I have to search for each article? Also, when are you going to do Animal Man?!
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Comment by Virgil Tibbs on November 5, 2011 at 10:03pm
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Alan Moore Swamp Thing run is in my top 5 list of favorite things ever, you can't overrate that series.
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Comment by NULLcHiLD on November 3, 2011 at 1:29pm -
@Happy Birthday Roboto: It wasn't at the end of the run, Alan Moore revealed that in his second issue on the series.
@Brian Salisbury: How far are you going to go with this review series? Are you only doing first issues or will you expand to first story arcs for the new 52?
If you plan on collecting Swamp Thing I'd say pick up everything before Alan Moore's run (so that you understand who some of the characters are, near the end of his run, Moore started bringing characters from before his run back in) all the way to the end of his run, because Moore gave the series a fitting conclusion.
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Comment by Happy Birthday Roboto on November 3, 2011 at 7:21am -
I'm a big DC fan but I admit to knowing less about Swamp Thing than Brian! All that I knew was that when Alan Moore wrote him, the twist at the end of the run was that he wasn't a man who had been turned into a creature but somehow a creature that had somehow inheritted a dead man's memories! I could be remebering things wrong and if so please correct me!
Other than that I'm a big Masters of the Universe fan and Swamp Thing reminds me of the 2002 cartoon's version of Moss Man! :)
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Comment by Gift of the Magi on November 3, 2011 at 3:47am -
Powers-wise, I think Swamp Thing is nearly impossible to kill, as attacks or projectiles just pass through his vegetable body. I think Moore wrote him as an elemental creature, that could move about the planet through it's biospheres in a sort of teleportation. Beyond that, I don't know a lot about Swamp Thing.
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Comment by Andrenn on November 3, 2011 at 2:51am -
Solid Review Brian. Glad to see you're on board with the series and curious to see what you, a huge horror fan, think of future issues. While the pacing has weakened in issues 2 and 3 the horror has gotten stronger and has become the strength of the series.
I just started reading the Alan Moore swamp Thing run shortly after Snyder's run was announced. I am a fan of Snyder's writing and I've interviewed him a couple of times so despite not knowing the character at all I trusted him to at least give a good horror read. But I wanted to know the history a little and at least check out the legendary run before I started the new stories. Literally a day after I cracked open Book 1 I ordered Book 2. I started reading in late July and over the new few months I have torn through the current 5 hardcovers and am counting down the days until the 6th and final book is released. Its great story telling in general but its also brilliant horror. Horror comics don't scare me often, even ones I love, but I was honestly scared just to be in my room after I put down Book 1. When you do check out Alan Moore's Swamp Thing I'd really like to hear what you have to say in an article some time, or maybe if you bring it up on the LEOG.
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Comment by Brian Salisbury on November 3, 2011 at 1:15am -
Nixon--I desperately want to read everything Moore has ever done after reading Watchmen. But I will now specifically seek out his Swamp Thing run. Thanks for the recommendation!
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Comment by Denis McElwaine on November 2, 2011 at 9:36pm -
As usual I have a recomendation Alan Moore's the Swamp Thing.
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