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Swamp Thing #1 Review or: What the F— Just Happened in the Comic Book That I Just Read?

swampthing1 baeThe DC reboot is upon us, comic book sniffers! Welcome to the new DC universe! In an effort to help bring new readers into the world of comics, the Fanboy Comics staff has decided to review at least five new #1 issues each week of September, DC’s reboot launch month.

DC rebooted their titles to entice new fans who may have been previously unfamiliar with their comic books, right?  

I read my first DCnU comic book, Swamp Thing #1, written by Scott Snyder and art by Yanick Paquette, with no knowledge of the Swamp Thing character or its previous story lines.  After reading the comic, I can confidently say that I still have no knowledge of who Swamp Thing is nor how it came to be.

 

SPOILERS AHEAD

The entire issue was narrated by a character who went unnamed and (nearly) unseen until page 9.  Even after being introduced to the protagonist, Alec Holland, I met so many other characters with seemingly unconnected story lines that I was left feeling as though I picked up a later issue within the series.  At one point, I literally thought I was reading a Justice League comic, as page one introduced Superman (as Clark Kent), page two (and three) displayed Batman, and page three revealed Aquaman.  (Had I found an amazing misprint containing the pages of a Justice League comic inside a Swamp Thing cover?!  What a rare and amazing find!)  

I did learn that Holland was an amazing botanist whose bio-restorative formula went haywire and blew up his laboratory.  (Now, he’s a construction worker.  Why?  I don’t know…)  I also learned that he was, apparently, friends with Superman, who made a second appearance; however, I never found out how they knew each other nor why Superman wanted Holland to continue his biological studies.  (Are we supposed to think that it is normal for Superman to show up and have cryptic conversations with people?)

As I continued through the story, I was led to believe that Holland, as the protagonist, would turn out to be Swamp Thing; however, this was not the case.  Although Holland occasionally described his death and transformation into a monster, the final page of the comic showed Holland in the same panel with Swamp Thing.  Um… huh?  

It wasn’t until I relayed my complete and utter confusion with this comic to Fanboy Comics Creative Director Sam Rhodes that I learned that Alan Moore’s adaptation of Swamp Thing revealed that Alec Holland was not the monster; instead, Swamp Thing was a separate entity that absorbed Holland’s memory and personality.  Was DC trying to combine too may previous story lines of the character into one issue?  If so, did they really expect a reader who had no knowledge of these story lines to understand or enjoy this issue?

There were so many problems and so much confusion with this #1 that I have no desire to pick up the second issue.  DC utterly failed in its attempt to win over this new reader.

 

Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief

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