Okay, I haven’t been reading DC’s Swamp Thing on a regular basis, but after reading issue #12, I’m solidly on board, and here’s why:
Writer Ram V, who has already more than impressed us with his work on other titles (Google it please, there are tons), seems to have unmatched imagination to explore with Swamp Thing. Looking back an issue or two, there was tension between brothers Jacob and Levi. This left Swampie all broken up and in little bits. Téfe Holland, the daughter of the original Swamp Thing, has jumped back into the arena and is working to put Swamp Thing together again. Sounds simple, but Swamp Thing is coming to grips with a lot.
Oh, this title is simply amazing. Ram V’s visualization of industrial horror is coupled and linked to the vivid artwork of artist Mike Perkins and colourist Mike Spicer (with arc welding, soldering, and lettering by Aditya Bidikar). So, it’s nature pitted in horror against “Industrial Horror: the remains of discarded consumer-capitalism manufacturing! Gears and machines from hell, in other words. My brain hurts just thinking of this, and how fresh the concepts are.
Inside the book, its lush settings of green, alternated with blue-tinted gears and the undead. Perkins draws solid characters, with mass and weight. The gear ratio is powerful with this one: graphic design plays nicely with plenty of lights and darks. There are black dialogue boxes to underline the intensity and the deepest and most dramatic dive into the technocolour array that you can possibly imagine. It’s intense alright, with characters on 11, colour intensity on 11, and artwork that threatens to jump off the page in its most graphic and spine-chilling.
I’m ranting and raving about this title, of course. But when I settle down and have another look at issue 12, I am impressed all over again, and want to read the previous books and the books that come after it, all at once, and tell the world. Oh yeah, it’s a good read, alright!
DC Comics, Swamp Thing #12 (of 16), $3.99 for 23 pages of content. Rated Teen.
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