Swamp Thing #19 review

The long, long Rotworld storyline is over and Swamp Thing gets a soft relaunch with a new creative team. Charles Soule hops on board as writer, Kano takes over as artist and suddenly I'm interested again. Instead of fighting monsters, Swamp Thing fears he's becoming as monstrous inside as he looks on the outside. You see, he's been travelling the world, learning about his capabilities and duties, heeding the demands of the Green. Someone named the Seeder is creating mini-paradises, improving the lives of the poor with little jungles and oases. It sounds wonderful, but Swampy is destroying them even though it means people will die; he's listening to the Green, believing that he's serving the bigger picture by restoring the planetary balance.

He believes he's doing the right thing, but he doesn't feel it. So he decides to seek advice from Superman, knowing that his powers mean that for every life he saves here, he's having to let someone die there. (To my mind this is an awfully 'glass half empty' attitude - as long as Superman is saving someone, it's all to the good.) Swamp Thing - or Alec Holland, as he still thinks of himself, despite his human inner body having died last month - arrives in Metropolis at night, so decides to spend a few hours at the Metropolis Botanical Garden. It's there he meets Batman villain the Scarecrow, and an entertaining encounter ensues.

Soule's Swampy is chattier than under previous writer Scott Snyder, and while some of this can be put down to a new writer piling on the exposition - page one is a tad clunky as we're given unnecessary background info - most of it goes to character. Soule gives us a Swampy desperately, defiantly clinging onto his notions of personhood, and Alec may be right to do so. After all, how many plants have a sense of humour? (Click on image to enlarge)

And there's some fine descriptive writing around the notion of the worldwide plant community, making Alec's life seem equal parts fascinating and banal.

It's not all talk - Swampy is constantly intervening to correct perceived wrongs, and there's one shocker of a scene which I won't spoil, but I would advise not reading this comic with your supper. Events crescendo to a climax that emphasises Swamp Thing's immense power. And while Superman barely cameos, despite the cracking gatefold cover from Andy Brase, I like what Soule does with the Man of Steel.

Partner-in-crime Kano puts his own stamp on the book with some seriously smart layouts, rendered with real craft. He captures Swampy's hulking grace, his immoveable nature. A nice bit of perspective work conveys what an imposing creature Swampy is, but every page has something to recommend it. And with the aid of colourist Matthew Wilson, Kano gives us a pulsing, nighttime Metropolis that's rarely seen.

If you jumped off Swamp Thing during the Rotworld serial, give the new creative team a chance - I think this is going to be a memorably fine run.