Have I told you that I love Swamp Thing? I loved the old movies, the animated series, and even the live action TV show from the 90s. There is just something about a monster out to save the day that is just so compelling. Again, DC is coming out with these Digital First issues from their Walmart big book series and this issue is the Sunday release issue. So, let's dive into this swampy issue... SPOILERS coming! Hell Yeah! Lets Get Ice Cream!
It is pretty obvious that DC is out to create low hanging fruit (get it??) in the Digital First books. They are simple and straightforward. Mark Russell penned a story that was action packed, accessable, but still dabbled in Swamp Thing's horror roots. Sunderland is developing a seed that sterilizes itself and other plants around it, forcing farmers to keep going back to buy the grain from his company. The problem is that it will also eventually kill every plant on earth if it is allowed to propagate. So, naturally... the Green can't have that. Swamp Thing heads to one of the grain mills to take it out. There, he surprises some security guards and viney, salad shooting, action ensues. After burning the place down, Swampy heads to a village in the bayou where he consults with Fatima, a Voodoo priestess to let her know that this poison is also effecting him. He has been channeling the poison basically into a big beet inside of his body. He ends up dumping it into the bayou, but Fatima observes from a distance with sinister intentions. Sunderland wants to take Swamp Thing out. One of his board members says she has a plant neurotoxin that she thinks will take him out and then in turn use him to grow crops and be property of the Sunderland corporation. But old Swampy has been a step ahead of them this whole time... how will they get the toxin into him you might ask? This is where things get a little confusing for me. Somewhere along the way the board member, Sally, got with Fatima to double cross Swamp Thing and inject him with the poison... and that she does. It just wasn't super clear how all that went down. While Swamp Thing is out, Fatima, who has been trying to cheat death her whole life, takes a bite of the big nasty beet she pulls from his body. Plot twist though... she doesn't know the beet will cause you to go into a deathlike coma after a few bites. Swamp Thing wakes up seeing Fatima "dead" thinks she saved him. The issue ends with Fatima's funeral. As Swamp Thing walks away... Fatima wakes up from her coma, buried six feet under! See.. nice horror element there. Again, I love Swamp Thing. I think he deserves an ongoing series. So, I was pumped to see that I have some weekly, cheap, boggy action coming my way. My only knock was just a plot hole or two that had me go back and reread some things to see if I missed something. But it checked all the Swamp Thing boxes you want: broody self reflection, crazy plant powers, and beating up hordes of bad guys. The art from Marco Santucci was great. You can tell he really enjoys drawing Swamp Thing. The perspectives of the panels also made me feel like I was watching scenes from a old school horror flick. I gotta mention one of my favorite panels... two thugs think they took out Swamp Thing with napalm, and one of them taking in the blaze, says "Hell yeah! Lets get ice cream!" Then of course... it is just a burning husk of Swamp Thing and he takes them out... classic goofy bad guy stuff! I will for sure keep reading this series. Check it out at READ DC. 3.5/5 stars -CBD
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