CBR13Bingo – Flora
Some of the other reviews mention that this one is a little rough compared to where this series will go. Good…I liked it and found it interesting, but not super compelling. It felt very much like a time capsule or like listening to a somewhat immature first album that shows a lot of promise.
Swamp Thing is a weird one. I watched the movie as a kid, but the story, the pathos, the ideas don’t really stick with me. I suppose I have a little more sense of it now. This comic is basically like John Gardner’s Grendel, but for Swamp Thing. He’s not coming to terms with his monsterness, but his loss of identity as a human and coming to terms with his very plant life. It asks the interesting question, about what existential questions arise from a complete loss of self. The MCU doesn’t really do that good of a job of exploring the depths of the emotional ravages of their films. I know they DO address it, but it’s always in service of the spectacle. In this series you go several issues in a row with very little spectacle.
I do really love how stupidly goofy DC is about naming conventions. The Batman villains are OG wild and I love them, but here’s two we’ve met so far: The Floronic Man and Johnny Blood. Perfect.
This first collection feels like it’s getting its footing. This seems pretty understandable since, even though it’s issues 20-28 or so, it’s a new writer, taking a new direction, so it’s worth some space to explore how we got here, and what even here is.
(Photo: https://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/12477413-saga-of-the-swamp-thing)
