I wanted to like it. I really did.

§ August 25th, 2011 § Filed under swamp thing § 8 Comments

So I read the last issue of the Brightest Day: The Search for Swamp Thing mini-series, and…honestly, what was the point of this? I said before the plot of the series seemed to be about resolving the relationship between Swamp Thing and Alec Holland, which already seemed to be resolved at the climax of the Brightest Day mini. And (SPOILER) it’s still not resolved, or rather it’s been unresolved, with Swampy and Alec still split up for some reason, leaving it for the new ongoing series to take care of, I guess.

Ultimately, it’s as I suspected previously…the point of the series was to show the two of Vertigo’s flagship characters tooling around in the regular superheroic DC Universe. And that’s it. As far as character or plot progression goes, it was just a whole lot of running in place. There’s novelty in Constantine encountering Superman and Batman, and was that a Cranius cameo I spotted in there? But that’s about all I can say for this series. Oh, and the variant covers were nice, too.

Speaking of that upcoming Swamp Thing series…the logo for the new book can be seen here. I was kinda hoping for this logo, if Swampy is going to be all superhero-y an’ all.

8 Responses to “I wanted to like it. I really did.”

  • Anonymous says:

    It had to be Cranius. Now we know what really happened after Un-Men ended back in 2008. Wonder what happened to the winged chick and the albino guy? Wow! Can’t wait to see how Snyder follows this up.

    Two questions for the Mikester:

    1. Could that Batman Adventures issue with Alec Holland be taking place in the DCnU right before the reboots start, or should it still be placed circa 1976-1977, somewhere between ST #24 and Challs #83?

    2. Boston Brand knows about John Constantine?
    Since when? Constantine and Swampy’s mutual contact has always been the Phantom Stranger, not Deadman…

  • Wesley Smith says:

    I haven’t read the mini, but what you’re describing here has been going on since the Infinite Crisis minis, and it’s a large part of why I’ve dropped so many titles since. With many of DC’s comics I’ve read recently, there’s an intentional avoidance of any kind of closure ever. That’s particularly true of the mini-series, where you expect a story to have a definitive beginning, middle and end.

    So many super-hero comics today don’t have any story to speak of; they’re just six-issue character studies. One of my greatest hopes of the DCnU is that return to telling adventure stories once again instead of dramas.

  • C. Elam says:

    I sort of felt this way about the recent Captain Carrot mini-series. In its day, I LOVED the Zoo Crew on a level possibly exceeding your love for Swamp Thing. And the mini-series started out strong and hit a lot of good notes…

    And then it ended on an editorially-mandated cliffhanger which will likely not be resolved anytime soon, if ever. All I really wanted was a mini-series that told a reasonably complete story with some of my favorite characters, not a finale seemingly designed to make readers feel stupid for caring at all about a bunch of dumb ol’ funny animals anyway.

    Anyway, the point I think I wanted to make is that I didn’t really understand the point of the mini-series, since it was constructed in such a way as to ultimately undermine itself. Why bother?

  • Anonymous says:

    Ahem! About the above Search For Swamp Thing questions, Sterling…

  • Josh says:

    Anonymous, anent Question #2, see Gaiman’s Books of Magic and Moore’s first Swamp Thing Annual. Also Moore’s Swamp Thing 50.

  • Mikester says:

    Anon. – 1. No idea. 2. Have no problem with Boston Brand knowing about Constantine.

  • Anonymous says:

    Josh: The Alan Moore ST issues don’t answer that question, but Gaiman’s Books of Magic just might! Thanks!

    Mikester: Even if there’s no answer, maybe we can just assume Deadman was given a list by folks like Madame Xanadu of mystic people he should never possess, with Constantine topping that list?