DCnU Swamp Thing

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this one. I thought Alec Holland was going to be the new Swamp Thing, but evidently the two co-exist. I thought this was going to go back to the characters roots, so to speak (no pun intended), but Alec Holland evidently shares the Swamp Thing’s memories. Given that, the titular character doesn’t even appear until the last page, but no matter. I’m intrigued. Whether I like this one or not (and so far I do), I will likely continue to buy it for my wife. Tracy hasn’t read it yet, but she’s read more Swamp Thing (way more) than I have.

[Captain Comics]

Scott Snyder has been tweeting about Swamp Thing tonight. He did a quick history of the character and then tweeted:

 

But recently, the original human Alec Holland was brought back by great forces of Nature (via Brightest Day). His last real memory is of

 

...the accident in his lab - dying. But, because the Green brought him back, he has the memories of the creature that was Swamp Thing

 

all those years, too. These memories haunt him, like bad dreams of being a monster, and the volatility and need of the Green has made

 

...him want nothing to do with it anymore. But the idea is that maybe, the green brought him back for a reason. Maybe it wants something

 

...from him in a big way. something that has to do with his history, his destiny... maybe his life is tied to the legacy of this monster

 

///in ways he doesn't know yet. Just as maybe the lives of the original characters like Abby (Swamp Tihng

 

Thing's love interest) are tied to the same mythology of swamp thing, the green, the red and something else, something dark, in ways

 

that will tie into the history f the character, but reveal new secrets. And again, you don;t need to know ANY of this to enjoy

 

the series from #1 on. I'm just laying it out in case you want to know the cont. we're building on :)

 

Tefe is a character we have plans for down the line RT @_MartinWendel_: @Ssnyder1835 What about Tefe?

 

... We've given Alec back his life, his human life, but what he's worried about, deep down, is that

 

maybe that monster, Swamp Thing, is still there, part of him in ways he doesn't want to admit.

 

It was sort of self-done Twitter interview. An auto-Twitterview, perhaps.

 

 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Thanks, Cap!

 

You know, I miss the days when that information would have been conveyed in a first issue editorial.

[Philip Portelli]

That's new for the concept of Swamp Thing but we've seen it before with the Hulk, Ghost Rider, Werewolf By Night and several other Marvel monsters.

And should Swamp Thing be treated/regarded as a monster?

[KSwolf]

So, just how much of Swampy's backstory is still intact in the DCnU?  The issue made it seem as if most, if not all, of his continuity is still part of the status quo.

 

All in all, I thought this was a pretty solid issue -- nothing ground breaking, but intriguing enough to make me want to stick around for a while.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Snyder has said that pretty much everything in Swamp Thing's past is still there...

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #2: I was a little off the beam last month when I assumed that both the Swampt Thing and Alec Holland existed in the New DCU. Turns out the Swamp Elemental I mistook for the long-running DC character is, in fact, the predecessor. There’s lots o’ tips of the hat to previous versions (the “Wrightson Diner,” the Bissette/Totleben tribute in the flashback sequence), and the Elemental’s last words foreshadow the issue’s surprise guest star whose identity is revealed on the last page.

[Philip Portelli]

I'm a little confused myself. I thought that Brightest Day resurrected Alec Holland and seperated him from the Green and Swamp Thing so his saga existed. Now I'm not so sure but he remembered the surprise guest star but not like that!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Did you read the mini-series that bridged the gap between Brightest Day and the new series? I didn't, myself, but maybe some of the points you raise were addressed in it.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #3: They’ve really tapped the Moore era. Dark stuff.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Yeah, when that doctor appeared right at the end.... blurrghhh!

[Lee Houston, Junior]

In regards to issue 3, should I be concerned with what looks like the number 12 in the last panel (near the right hand side of the page) of the first double page spread, despite the fact it actually appears at the end of page 10; or am I reading too much into the art?

[Pencho15]

I love this.