Really interesting interview with Charles Soule, the new writer for Swamp Thing over at Newsarama.
He talks about world building, Superman, Scarecrow, and Alec as avatar of The Green.
Tag Archives: dc
Swamp Thing #1 (November – 2011 – DC)
Swam Thing #1
Alec Holland wants nothing to do with The Green, or Swamp Thing. He died and for a while he was the Swamp Thing, but now that he has his humanity back he wants nothing to do with any of it. So when Superman shows up at his new job (he has moved from botany into construction just to get away from plants), he is none to excited to help out. He knows all about the birds falling out of the air dead, and the fish holocaust, and the cattle die off. He still wants nothing to do with it.
Meanwhile at an archaeological dig a red tornado digs up the bones of a mastodon, which formulate a new creature that comes to attack the people that had been working at the dig. Flies swarm into their ears and they twist their own heads backwards. Doesn’t seem like a very pleasant way to go.
Skip to the bedroom of Alec Holland. In a dream he is reliving his death, only to awaken to a room full of foliage. Plants are crawling across the floor and filling the room. He is about to give them the formula that he has created, in his time as a botanist, that accelerates the growth of plants, when Swamp Thing arrives to stop him.
That’s right Scott Snyder waits until the final page of this title reboot to reveal Swamp Thing. Like all things that Scott Snyder works on everything from dialogue to exposition are spot on. Even long passages of conversation between Holland and Superman feel natural instead of long. That coupled with some truly beautiful, and horrific, artwork from Yanick Paquette makes this one of the best New 52 first issues that I’ve had the pleasure of reading.
Swamp Thing is so important to so many people that love horror comics. The directions that Alan Moore took the title showed a lot of people that an ongoing series could not only be exciting issue to issue but could also go into deep themes and ideas over the long haul of the title. Birthed from Swamp Thing was Hellblazer which did much the same, and continues into Constantine (another New 52 title I’m really enjoying). To see this treated with the seriousness and respect it deserves is nice because some of these New 52 sure don’t.
Next Time: The Strange Adventures of H. P. Lovecraft #2
gl
Constantine #1 (May – 2013 – DC)
Constantine #1
John Constantine is verbose, sarcastic, and awesome, or at least he was through the entire run of Hellblazer. When a comic transitions into a new title I’m always a little afraid that they are going to change the main character in way that makes him or her really unrecognizable I have no evidence of this ever really happening, it is just an irrational fear that I have. It looks like John Constantine is going to be just fine through his title transition.
The first two pages are just Constantine being his verbose self, talking about the price of magic. How for every bit you use up, something is taken from you. When one of his psychic informants shows up wanting help. Soon the two of them are on a plane to Norway to find Croydon’s Compass an artifact that will guide the one who possesses it to other magical artifacts. A powerful thing that Constantine now knows he is racing to find the pieces of before others with nefarious plans find it.
Unfortunately he arrives just in time to face off with the scion of the Cult of The Cold Flame, Sargon the Sorceress (who I assume is a reincarnation of Sargon the Sorcerer). She captures the psychic and refuses to let him go until Constantine hands over the needle of the compass. Constantine lets the man die, because he can’t allow the needle to fall into the wrong hands (or maybe because he just desires to possess that power for himself, you never can quite tell with John Constantine).
Renato Guedes provides so really great art for this inaugural issue that suits the character and subject matter pretty well. It is slick looking but it isn’t so slick that it looses its edginess. Writers Ray Fawkes and Jeff Lemire also seem to have a good handle on the spirit and tone that Constantine should take. This title excites me a lot more now that I’ve had a chance to read it than before it came out.
There is also an interesting little “newscast” on the last two pages of the book that seem to be alluding to the big Justice Leagues crossover that is coming up. Should be cool.
gl
Sandman #8 (August – 1989 – DC)
Sandman #8
All the nerd cred I have attempted to rack up in my life will most likely be worth nothing when I tell you I have only started reading Neil Gaiman’s Sandman this year. I was recently gifted the unspeakably beautiful slipcase set and it is intimidating to say the least.To all of you hypothetical geeks judging me in my paranoid brain right now for my blatant humble brag I say, “Fuck you. Do you have the Sandman slipcase set? “
I want to start the actual review off by saying the first seven parts to Master of Dreams are great and completely serviceable for horror comic aficionados, they are also undoubtedly less ambitious than the issues to come. The opening introduction and even the afterward of this first volume make it abundantly clear that the story is rough in comparison to the later arcs. The plot of the first issues are similar to video game objectives, the protagonist and ‘lord of dreams’ Morpheus loses all his dream equipment and he has to find each piece one by one. You can tell Neil was testing the waters of his concept, as a result he acted cautiously at the beginning when he threw in established DC characters like John Constantine. The final part of Master of Dreams is proof that his story and characters stand on their own.
The Sound of Her Wings is often regarded as the issue in which Gaiman came out of his shell and it marks the first time we see fan favorite Death. It is not only the end of an 8 issue story arc but the end of the first volume Preludes & Nocturnes. This is where the usual warnings of the early issues being rough stop, for good reason because The Sound of Her Wings is one of the best single stories I have ever read.
We start with Dream feeding pigeons in a city park, he is feeling down in the dumps because his quest to retrieve his stuff is over and now there is little to keep him preoccupied. His quirky and spontaneous sister Death arrives to call him on his shit and cheer her brother up by taking him along on her daily duties as the end of life.
The pages of Death doing her job and guiding souls to the end after witnessing their last moments are beautiful and horrifying. Gaiman intentionally starts her and Dream’s journey off with the spectacle of a natural and peaceful death, gradually working towards the more untimely fates of each individual. Overdose, suicide, murder, accident. The circle of life doesn’t stop for anyone. At one point an infant asks “is that all I get?” before death inevitably has to take the child away. Your mood will change throughout the issue, a happy page turns into a sad page and sadness becomes enlightenment for both the reader and our protagonist. Dream notices how his sister carries on her duty with diligence, dying is as natural as dreaming. When the siblings return to the location they started at, Dream learns to embrace his purpose.
There are not enough good things in the world to say about the crafting of this story. Neil engages the reader with interesting and subtly realistic characters, he makes us understand the importance of every person having a function and his descriptive writing fits perfectly with the tone the artist creates. Gaiman doesn’t waste any potential here, for example, the namesake of this issue in particular comes from the sound Death makes when she takes spirits away with her. Dream hears the beating of wings every time she does this, and in the last page when the pigeons he was feeding earlier at the park fly away he hears the sound of her wings again. This issue is a good example of Sandman transcending its genre, and it comes close to transcending the medium of comics all together.
ne
Preview Pages of Constantine #2
I have to say that I’m kind of kicking myself in the ass for not picking up Constantine #1. The Spectre is awesome (or at least #21 from the 80’s was), I’ll have to pick up the 2nd print of Constantine #1 and then this bad boy as soon as they are out.
You can check out some preview pages on Comic Monsters.
Charles Soule on his new gig writing Swamp Thing
No pressure Mr. Soule. If you screw up Swamp Thing only like everyone will want to string you up by the short hairs. No pressure.
Bloody Disgusting has and interview with him all about how he now realizes what kind of crazy huge shoes he now has to fill.
The Spectre #21 (December – 1988 – DC)
The Spectre #21
I got a bunch of comics off of e-bay a few months ago and slipped into the middle of the stack was a copy of The Spectre #21. I am completely unfamiliar with the title. There is something really fun about going into a title blind. If you don’t really know what is going on you get to be introduced to something new and special.
That is exactly what I got reading issue #21 of The Spectre. The Spectre is James Corrigan, Private Investigator, but he is so much more. Inside of him dwells a creature that is sworn to vengeance. He hunts and finds people that have done evil and dispatches them. In this particular issue he is finding who murdered Jenny Dean.
Her husband has come to Corrigan to find out who the killer is, even though all the evidence points to him murdering his girlfriend. Once Corrigan has exhausted all of the corporeal investigation techniques that he can, The Spectre takes over to find the spirit of Jenny Dean. Find her he does, tied to a tree and tortured in Hell, and she is more than willing to tell The Specter who her murder is. Because she misses him, her boyfriend is the killer, and all she wants is for him to join her in Hell, because she is lonely, and understands that the PCP that her boyfriend took turned him into something that wasn’t the man she loved.
The Spectre returns and informs Corrigan that the killer must be killed. That revenge must be acted upon, something that Corrigan doesn’t agree with, but has no ability to stop.
The spirit of The Spectre in a lot of ways reminds me of The Ghost Rider, driven by vengeance with no mercy, and it is a testament to the writing ability of Doug Moench that the internal argument between Corrigan and The Spectre isn’t cheesy at all. It really fells like two sides of one man. The writing is bolstered by Vince Giarrano and Mark Badger who provide art that is dark and sinister. It plays a lot with the imagery of film noir (which is fitting as Corrigan is a private detective), and the scenes that take place in Hell have a dirty and unnerving feel. While The Spectre is in a lot of ways a super hero book, it is dark and brooding in a way that I love my supernatural superheroes to be. This is a great surprise for me, and I can’t wait to pick up more issues.
gl
Deadman: Exorcism Book One (1992 – DC)
Deadman Exorcism Book One
Rama Kushna has a need to restore the balance between good and evil, and she plans to accomplish that through one man, Deadman. But Deadman lost what he loved the most, and he fled into insanity, loneliness and despair. He no longer craves the balance of good and evil because he has seen that no matter what he does, evil doesn’t diminish. Deadman started out in a dark place (being a ghost and all), but where this collection picks up he is in a very, very, very dark place.
Fast forward to Carl and Kathy, out on a romp in the forests of Vermont, they want to find a secluded space to have a little romp, unfortunately they picked the place that the now mad Deadman has been occupying. He possesses Kathy and terrifies her husband Carl with some twisted sexual revelations. That sets things into motion.
Meanwhile Hugh Pye is having time go missing, blank spots in his memory that coincide with people turning up dead. His therapist feels that there is something more than medical to the situation, something spiritual, and she feels like she is in over her head. So she contacts Madame Waxahachie. Waxahachie puts Hugh into a trance to see what is lurking in his subconcinece and finds the Deadman there imitating a priest who has charged himself with ridding the world of sinners. Things are horribly amiss.
Through her trance Waxahachie finds the church that Carl and Kathy were attacked in. The church that Deadman is dwelling in, the place that he has retreated into insanity in. Waxahachie is invading his space and he doesn’t want that. So he once again takes possession of Hugh to go into the woods and rile up some metalheads that are partying out in the woods. While he is doing that the psychiatrist, Joanne, and Waxahachie explore the dilapidated church and inadvertently set free three evil spirits that dwell within the church.
A Roman solider a native American and a crazy minister are all loose in ghost form, and possess the bodies of the metalheads in the woods, making their way back to the church they seek to all possess, killing Hugh in the process. Upon their return they kidnap Joanne and Waxahachie and take them into the bowels of the ancient church, with the plan of killing what they perceive as witches. Which snaps Deadman out of his existential stupor. He suddenly realizes that he has become a force for evil and that he needs to redeem himself, so he posses the corpse of Hugh to go redeem himself. Which of course is where the cliffhanger is.
This is a dark book, and for that reason is spot on. Deadman is truly crazy in this book and they make it look it. Kelley Jones (who has some amazing runs with Batman, and Sandman) has a spindly and dangerous look that really fits the character of Deadman. Everything is off kilter and edgy it just fits the nature of a character mad with sorrow and loneliness An image that is bolstered by Mike Baron’s (who won the Eisner for Nexus) writing that doesn’t flinch from getting really intense. He doesn’t shy away from darkness or any of frightening nature of the spiritual world.
This is a great one off on the Deadman title (split up into two nearly trade size books), that really gets into the darker side of what Deadman has to deal with. The insanity of only knowing incorporeal spirits. The desire to live in a dark place because you have become a dark being. There is so much analogy to depression in this book, that it becomes very powerful as the tale goes on, without losing hold of the very superhero nature of Deadman. This is a fantastic take on the Deadman.
gl
The Whistling Skull #1 (February – 2013 – DC)
The Whistling Skull #1
One thing that I love about comics is that you often can judge a book by its cover. Which is pretty much what I did with The Whistling Skull. I saw it sitting on the shelf at my local comic shop (well technically I saw issue #2 and then asked if they had #1 as well), and after a brief conversation with the guy I always talk to about comics there, I was picking it up.
Well so here is the breakdown of what attracted me to the cover. First off the hero is apparently some kind of steampunk skeleton. Second his cohorts on the cover are the awesome kind of old school superheroes that I don’t dislike nearly as much as the spandex and logo chest class. Third the color is just so lurid and vivid. Amazing.
The inside looks just as good, with art from Tony Harris (who did the art in Darkhold #3 which I will be reviewing soon) there is a feeling of deep seeded decay in everything. Everything is wrinkled, scrapped and dinged up.
The story is interesting too. Told by R. Clay Moore in a series of flash backs and flash forwards you find that out Nigel (aka Knuckles) and William (aka Whistling Skull) have been friends since childhood with William always looking out for a very slow Nigel. They are a duo of crime fighters that work for something called Skeleton. This is an interesting introduction to the characters because there are just things not explained, like you should know what is going on right off of the bat. Problem is, from what I can tell the JSA has a fairly limited back story, and The Whistling Skull isn’t in much of it. So I’m kind of learning what is going on while I read.
I like it, and have been gobbling up the issues as they come out. I’m thinking that by the time I get to the end of the six issue miniseries, I’ll be hanging out hoping for more. I just want to know more about Skeleton and The Whistling Skull.
Next Time: The Strange Adventures of H. P. Lovecraft #1
gl
Digital Hellblazer on Sale!
ComiXology has the full run of Hellblazer (issues 1-300) on sale for 99 cents each. This is one of those rare moments when I could actually put a price tag on my happiness. Did I mention that the first issue is free!
Check it out!
Haunt of Horror Comics 