swamp thing

Swamp Mark noted

“i don’t think you’ve said a word about the new Swampy series. which is a shame because Wein and Jones are knocking it out of the park!”

I thought I mentioned it at some point…probably it was on the Twitterers, where I said, after reading the first issue, that it didn’t really do anything for me until the antagonist shows up in the back half of the issue. The series as a whole so far, now that we’re at the half-way point, is…well, it’s okay, I think.

I have no beef with the art. If we can’t have Bernie Wrightson back, Kelley Jones is just dandy, giving us weird, goopy, and creepy illustrations as is befitting a Swamp Thing title. Jones, of course, has drawn Swamp Thing many times over the years, and he’s always welcome.

Swampy’s other creator, Len Wein, is back on writing chores, however, and…well, I don’t know. It’s fine, but…okay, this is mostly on me, I suppose, in that the original ’70s Swamp Thing comics still have a strong appeal, so expecting this new series to compete with my own nostalgic feelings for the older work is very unfair. You Can’t Go Home Again, is what I believe I’d said on Twitter, and that’s probably more aimed at me than it is at Wein. The tone of the scripting just doesn’t feel the same…and why should it, I guess. There is this thing with Swampy’s dialogue that seems out of character, with his talking about kicking something’s ass here, and this bit of business there:

…which doesn’t sound right to me.

I just paged through the most recent issue, #3, again since it happened to be sitting here, and like that first issue, the story didn’t really grab my attention until the latter part of the comic, which leaves on a cliffhanger that genuinely left me looking forward to its resolution.

But even that brought up an issue with me, which is one that’s probably out of Wein’s hands, and that’s the New 52 continuity. Again, this is an issue that bugs me, The Guy Who’s Read Swamp Thing Comics for Nearly Four Decades, and may not be a problem for someone coming to the character fresh, but there’s the big disconnect between what has come before, and the New 52 version of events. Given that we were reintroduced to the “plant that thought it was Alec Holland” version of Swamp Thing post-New 52, I was able to imagine that the adventures we read of that version of Swampy still existed, more or less, even with the changes to Arcane. But, with the return of a certain old supporting character in this issue, unless there’s a lot of weird backstory to be revealed, one of the classic Alan Moore stories from early in his run now appears to Never Have Happened. (It also futzes up a small bit of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, for that matter.)

I can sort of understand the decision…why remain committed to a piece of continuity from decades ago when you’re trying to do new comics for hopefully new readers who may, at best, only know the most basic information about the character’s concept? Not to mention the fact that, referring to those old events involving said supporting character, none of them were experienced by this version of Swamp Thing anyway, if you follow me. It’s not like the Alec Holland-version of Swamp Thing is suddenly going to shout “B-b-but you’re DEAD!” when as far as he knew, that character was just fine and dandy when he last saw him.

Ignore all that if there’s a big reveal in the next issue that this was all a trick and it isn’t really that supporting character but some old enemy in disguise or something.

Anyway, wrapping up…I like the series. The art’s great, and the writing’s tone is taking me a while to warm up to but it’s fine. The continuity issues are a thing, which undermines the proceedings a bit, but that’s because I’m old and read all that stuff so it’s still in my mind when I read this new stuff. But to paraphrase those brilliant philosophers, “it’s just a comic book, I should really just relax.”

EVEN SHORTER CONCLUSION: Mike, you got a new and reasonably good Swamp Thing comic written by its creator and drawn by a great artist — shut up, already.

So Twitter pal BobH pointed this out to me just the other day…a listing for the forthcoming second Roots of the Swamp Thing hardcover (also on Amazon).

Now this hasn’t turned up in Diamond’s system yet, so I don’t have specific details, but from the description it sounds like it’ll be reprinting the balance of the original 1970s Swamp Thing series past the first thirteen issues presented in volume one. My dream reprint project (as noted here) a reality at last! Finally the rest of those great Nestor Redondo-illustrated issues (plus the oddball Ernie Chan/Fred Carrillo story at the end) presented with (hopefully) decent paper and printing.

Assuming the book just reprints the remaining 11 issues in that original Swamp Thing run, this will be a bit shorter than the previous volume. I don’t have an actual page count yet, but it would be nice if they could include whatever pages exist of the unpublished #25.

Less likely would be the inclusion of the interim Swampy stories between the end of the original series and the 1980s relaunch (which were only six years apart, which seems really weird to me). There weren’t really that many Swamp Thing stories in that period…a couple of Brave and the Bold appearances, the DC Comics Presents, those Challengers of the Unknown guest-starring Swampy and Deadman…. Actually, a third volume reprinting all these together wouldn’t be too bad, though the Challengers stories, while wrapping up a plotline or two from the end of the ’70s Swamp Thing comic, don’t quite have the legendary funnybook cachet of the Wein/Wrightson/Redondo era and are probably way low on the reprint priority list.

As I said at that Trouble with Comics link, maybe this will someday lead to a collection of the Marty Pasko/Tom Yeates collaboration in the early issues of the releaunch. That could also stand being on nice paper under one cover, not to mention the possibility of being discovered by a new audience after populating dollar boxes and whatnot for so long.

I was Twittered at and emailed about a thousand times this weekend about this particular product, so I thought I’d better point it out on this here site of mine. Yes, we are finally getting the Funko Pop Vinyl figure we deserve — well, that I deserve, I don’t know about the rest of you jokers — Swamp Thing!

And yes, because I demanded it, there is a glow-in-the-dark variant as well:

I do like that the gave the figure the solid red eyes, instead of the usual button-black eyes most of the rest of the figures receive. Now all we need to do is get Arcane, Abby, and, dare I dream, Cranius Pops and all will be right with the world. And in case you’re wondering…yes, I’ll be ordering a boatload of these for the store. I shall fill the windows and line the walls with them. I am confident that this will be a wise business decision.

So with the arrival of the new Swamp Thing action figure this week (the “DC Essential” or, apparently, the “Justice League Dark” figure), I decided to finally open my New 52 Deluxe Swamp Thing action figure box and do a little comparison:

Anyway, these are nice looking figures, for the most part…the ball joints on the legs are a little distracting, and Swamp Thing’s “armored” look still seems a little odd to these Wrightson-trained eyes, but otherwise not bad. The extra branches sticking out of the arms are a good touch, assuming they don’t accidentally fall off. The figures stand about 9 to 9 1/2 inches tall, depending on whether or not there are horns, which puts ’em in scale with other DC action figures…Swamp Thing should tower over them, after all.

Deluxe Swamp Thing comes with a shield and a sword. Regular Swamp Thing comics with nothing but love in his heart. Neither come with a Cranius, so points off for that. And with a new Swampy series coming from cocreator Len Wein and artist Kelley Jones, maybe we’ll get a figure of that version, too. Because boy, I sure could use more Swamp Thing toys.

So I just picked up a big ol’ stack of Famous Monsters of Filmland, and put it right back down again because it was so heavy. I’m still in the process of stripping off the awful, awful bags and their gooey taped flaps (don’t use tape on comic bags, c’mon people) and throwing them on the eBays, but to the surprise of surely nobody who has read this comics blog for any period of time, I’m hanging onto this issue: