Swamp Thing #2 Review

Will Alec Holland accept his destiny?

I loved the first issue of Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette's Swamp Thing. In fact, I reviewed the book a month ago and lavished it with praise, top to bottom. That's why it's kind of shocking, even to me, that I loved Swamp Thing #2 even more. Scott Snyder has somehow managed to make this series not only a continuation of everything that has come before in Swamp Thing, but also a completely accessible origin story for Alec Holland's tenure protecting The Green. Swamp Thing #2 is the issue that lays it all out, defining the legacy of the character and establishing the foundation for an epic struggle to preserve The Green against its darkest hour with Holland trapped in the middle.

Swamp Thing #2 picks up directly where issue #1 ended -- Swamp Thing has come to meet Alec Holland and explain why he is so important to The Green's cause. The vast majority of Swamp Thing #2 features Swampy giving a cliff notes-style history lesson about his life, the importance of The Green, the role of the Parliament of Trees and the imminent threat that is currently trying to track down and kill Holland.

I'll be honest, I was a little skeptical about how Snyder would pull together everything that came before with the character and still manage to create a book that felt easily accessible for new readers -- one of the major selling points of the New 52. Swamp Thing #2 proves he knows what he's doing. What we have here is a completely fresh origin story for Alec Holland's journey into the role of Swamp Thing which respects everything previously established from writers such as Wein, Moore, etc. Snyder has discovered a loophole in the Swamp Thing legacy for him to firmly plant his narrative roots.

One of this series' biggest selling points is, without a doubt, Yanick Paquette's incredible artwork. His pencils once again shines with Swamp Thing #2. Not only are panels incredibly detailed with lifelike figures, but his layouts once again blow the mind. It's the small touches like panels broken up by branches and blood streaks that really make this the complete artistic package. The only criticism I have against the art of Swamp Thing #2, and it's a minor one, is that some double-page spreads are so elaborate that it becomes hard to figure out which word balloon should come next.

In this writer's humble opinion, Swamp Thing #2 is the book of the week. Snyder has set the groundwork for one epic story. It also doesn't hurt that he has an artist like Yanick Paquette to draw all his beautifully creepy imagery, of which this issue is full of. Swamp Thing is a series that you need to be reading, no questions asked. And if you aren't yet, hightail it to your local comic shop and buy into this.