Let's Talk About Why The Swamp Thing #5 Is One Of Best Comics Put Out This Year

Hi, I'm David Harth, and I'm back. Okay, well, technically, I haven't gone anywhere. I still review lots of books every month, and I can now be found on Twitter, where I retweet political stuff, almost get dragged by Simu Liu for implying that Shang-Chi is going to fail in China, further depriving Disney of that sweet Chinese box office (that really happened, by the way- he tried to imply I was racist for saying that; it was fun), and desperately trying to get noticed by comic creators. It's fun. Follow me- @harth_david.

Now that I've plugged myself (I'd plug my other writing gig, but I don't get paid per view, so I won't do that here), let's get to why we're all here- Ram V and John McCrea's excellent The Swamp Thing #5.

So, to begin with, I wasn't reading this book at first. I'm not huge into Swamp Thing, if I'm being honest. I mean, I've read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing because it's basically a prerequisite if you want your comic opinions to be taken seriously, and I enjoy the character in team books, but I haven't gone out of my way to read any Swamp Thing solo books. I loved him in Justice League Dark, though, which brings us around to why I ended up reading The Swamp Thing #5.

I review Justice League, and Ram V writes the Justice League Dark back-up stories in every issue. Now, taken as a whole, Justice League is the best team book on the market right now. Sure, I love some of the X-Men team books like Children of the Atom, X-Factor, and X-Force, but one of those is ending, one of those is over, and X-Force is great but not the best team book kind of great. Duggan and Larraz's X-Men was good, but it's not what I want from an X-Men book, especially after how everything has been shaking out. Avengers is… a book that gets published. I'll be honest- I've never met anyone who likes Avengers since Hickman was writing it. Echo gets the Phoenix Force? Really?

Okay, off-topic.

So, I got into Ram V because of the JLD. I was on Twitter on the Tuesday The Swamp Thing #5 came out, and everybody was singing its praises, so I went to the comic store a day or two later to pick it up, and it was sold out at my store. Now, I had promised V and McCrea that I would buy it because I asked them if I needed to have read any more of the series before that issue to get it. So, seeing as how I couldn't get a physical copy at my store, I did the next best thing… I ordered one. What did you think I was gonna say, bought it digitally? I'm too old for that hocus pocus.

Anyway, it came on Saturday morning, and I read it, and I was blown away. DC has been doing the best mainstream horror comics for… well, forever. Like, name a Marvel horror comic that can compare to any of DC's. It's just about impossible, and even if you can find one, I can drop something like Swamp Thing or early The Sandman or any one of a plethora of Vertigo books. So, yeah, DC has the best horror books of the Big Two.

So, I read this comic, and I was struck immediately by how poetic it was. You can tell V has read the greats, like Moore and Gaiman. It had that 1980s DC Suspected Suspense vibe that made DC's horror books such a hot thing all those decades ago. However, it wasn't like V was working off the Moore playbook completely. He used that style, but he made it his own. It's recognizably his, and it worked brilliantly. Then John Constantine showed up, and, again, we're in Moore territory in a way but not totally. V's Constantine isn't Moore's. The DNA is there, but that's all.

Then we get the rub of the issue- a woman looking for her boyfriend; something making people terrible; a call for help. Swamp Thing shows up, and Constantine knows that this isn't his Swamp Thing, but that doesn't mean they aren't friends. From there, it gets pretty real, and that's where V drops the subtext and lets it all hang out. Basically, the whole thing that started all of the magical mayhem is (SPOILERS) an unexploded piece of Nazi ordnance from the Blitz. The ur-fascists strike again, infecting everything around it with their hate. That's where it gets real, and that's why I love it.

Right now, the world is having a bit of a fascism problem, and the trappings of the Third Reich are all over it. It's not just swastikas, either, but just everything about the Nazis- the fake news, the propaganda, the Big Lie here in the US echoing Hitler's quote about little lies and big lies, the anti-Semitism, the general racism. All of that hate radiating outwards from those days to this one, still influencing people. It isn't exactly brave to point this out; anyone with a brain who isn't actually a fascist knows it. It's the way V does it, though, that makes it so clever. It's text and subtext. I read it and see immediately what he was going for. Someone else reads it and sees it as a cool plot point. It works on multiple levels, and that's why it's awesome.

It's also part of the legacy of Alan Moore's time on the character. Moore used Swamp Thing to talk about a lot of subjects- nukes, environmentalism, racism, sexism. V is just keeping that going and using the character to talk about the problem of the day. Swamp Thing saves the day, just like he did in those old Moore, but in the real world, it isn't that easy- no swamp monster is going to show up carry away the radioactive essence of the Nazis’ hatred, and detonate it elsewhere. However, just talking about, putting it out there that it exists and is still affecting us helps. It helps to shine a light on the ugly things. That's what art is for- to place a mirror to our society and take a look at it.

The world has a Nazi problem, and we don't have a Swamp Thing to solve it, so we have to do it. That's what I get from this book, and it's perfect. We dodged the Trump bullet in 2020, but that doesn't mean the fight is over.

So, I've talked a lot about the script and my interpretation of the whole thing, but now it's time to talk about the art. Most fans know John McCrea from Hitman, and his art style on that book is quite distinct. On this book, his style is different but no less distinct. The decades have been kind to his drawing hand, and the way his style has developed since his earlier days has paid dividends for this book.

There are some great images in this comic- overhead maps of London representing the flow of magic, a man entombed in pipes, Swamp Thing burning away as the bomb's essence affects him. His character acting is on point, and there's a sense of dread throughout, the ugliness of the bomb reaching up and eating away at the people on the streets, spurring them on to terrible action. The art is creepy and powerful, and it makes the script sing in ways that another artist couldn't.

One of the glories of the comic medium is how it rewards collaboration; sometimes, you get magic when the right creative team comes together, and this issue is a perfect example of that. V's script would be great regardless, but in McCrea's hands, it sings in a way it wouldn't otherwise. McCrea's pencils are amazing, but without Mike Spicer's colors, they'd lose something. Aditya Bidikar's letters give the words their heft. It all works together, as the best comics are supposed to.

While typing this up, I opened up my copy to take a look at the credits, and just looking at the panels, I'm struck by just how good the whole thing is. This is an excellent comic and even just looking through it, one can see how great it looks. Sitting down and reading it is something else; it's the perfect fusion of script, pencils, colors, and letters. Each page layout is amazing. This is one of those rare examples of why the comics medium is one of the best storytelling mediums we have right now. Everything about it works so very well.

I read a lot of comics every month; reading is my main form of enjoyment and has been for most of my life. With my life the way it is right now, it can be hard to dig into a novel (I've been trying to finish that Final Fantasy XV novel for months and have a stack of others to get to), but I can always find time for comics. In fact, because so much of my work is reading comics, I can get away with reading them- it's part of my job, so the wife can't complain because I'm working. I also read some that I don't even write about, and then there's the trades and collected editions. I know quality when I see it, and this is pretty objectively a quality comic. My favorite comic of the last decade was The Multiversity: Pax Americana (which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's read any of my Let's Talk About… articles), and this book is going right up under that one.

If someone were to ask me what the best comic I read in 2021 ways, I'd answer The Swamp Thing #5 and then bring up Chip Zdarsky hugging Chip Zdarsky in Crossover #7. God, that's a great scene. Anyway, if you can, find a way to read The Swamp Thing #5, read it and prepare to be amazed because that's what it is- amazing. It works on so many different levels and is just an all-around masterpiece. Then, go on Twitter, follow the creators and me, then tell them how much you love it. That's what I did.

I'm thinking about re-starting this old chestnut of an article series back up, but I write a lot per week, and it's hard to find time to really do it. However, let's say at some point in the next few weeks, we meet up back here, and I rant for a while about the X-Men. I have a lot of things to say about those books, so much so that I even talked about them a little bit here. So, until then, read some comics, follow me on Twitter and do the stuff. Or don't. Your choice.