The current Swamp Thing run's working well within its constraints.

[thanekos]

It's a miniseries - originally solicited as ten issues, then extended to sixteen - that doesn't waste any time engaging the reader.

Issue #1 starts with the protagonist - Levi Kamei, this run's titular being - already in the throes of his becoming.

Its dialogue is expository, because you can't pitch a reader headlong into a setup without giving them things to grab onto - but it's naturally so, ruminating monologues and complacent bantering.





Levi went to bed.



There was roiling in and around him.



The Green took him out to Arizona.



(This guy's not out of nowhere - the issue established him at the start as something rooted in the past, something whose becoming had become local folklore.

That folklore was used as a springboard into Levi's psyche.)



The other - the Pale Wanderer - tore through Levi.



(Pagecount's 7 of 22 from The Swamp Thing #1, back in March 2021.

Writing's Ram V, who's also currently doing Venom and Carnage at Marvel.

Art's Mike Perkins, colors're Mike Spicer, and letters're Aditya Bidikar.

Publisher's DC.)

Comments

[numeronone]

"We need to give this character more new stories rather than continually going back to the writing of Alan Moore for inspiration."

[aperturedreams]

I really disagree every time people say DC is still cribbing Alan Moore's work with brilliant runs like this one..."you can't kill an idea" originated with a Civil Rights activist during WWII decades before V for Vendetta was published. I'm not gonna go out of my way and defend Doomsday Clock but let's give Ram V some credit here.