Future State: Swamp Thing #1

Future State: Swamp Thing #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Ram V

Illustrated by Mike Perkins

Coloured by June Chung

Lettered by Aditya Bidikar

From the ashes of a terrible war, life blooms anew in Swamp Thing’s image. The remnants of humanity lie in hiding, forever in the shadow of the green god who now rules the planet. When the new avatar of the Green uncovers a stray human, a rebellion is revealed! But this Swamp Thing is no stranger to violent ends, and neither are his creations. If it’s war humanity wants, it will be at their doorstep-and Swamp Thing will never be the same!

This is what the Multiverse should be about. Stories set on Earths where things have happened and as a result we get books like this. Why on earth this needs to be some idiotic event is beyond me because I’d read this book on a monthly basis so long as the world knew it’s Earth (?). For me this idoes feel as if ties in to the Tales of the Dark Multiverse Crisis on Infinite Earths that was out a week or two ago. From what we see in the opening as we are introduced to this book it’s a logical assumption on my part and sice we aren’t really told otherwise that’s what I am choosing to believe. One of the fundamental problems with Future State is the fact that we don’t understand what it is supposed to be. Is this various Earth’s throughout the Multiverse as seen after events have come to irrevocably change them or is it just another publicity stunt that has absolutely no real meaning and once it’s done it’s gone and forgotten?

Now armed with my own theory and belief I read this book and loved every single moment of it. The way that this is being told through the story & plot development that we see as the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is extremely well done. The character development that we see is really rather interesting. While Swamp Thing was once human and still retains his humanity to a degree is expected but to see his people, the people of the green behaving in a much similar fashion is intriguing. I will admit that Indigo is the one who is the most interesting and at first glance I was thinking that was Jason Woodrue and honestly I was kind of hoping he’d be in this. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages we’re treated to an amazing look at this current world.

Okay the interiors here are absolutely mindbogglingly magnificent to see. Every single time Mike brings us the anatomy I am forced to sit in stunned silence because it is just that damn good. The linework is exquisitely laid down and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create the detail work is mad genius level stuff. When we see backgrounds being utilised they not only enhance the moments but also bring us some great depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. So I’d like to see more of them but with Mike doing the pencils and inks well I get it. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the composition within the panels with their angles and perspective show this utterly masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is stunning. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is exceptionally well rendered. The choice of colours and how they impact what and how we see this is really rather exceptional as are the various techniques being utilised to lay them down.

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With the last page cliffhanger ending all I know is that this is one of the few stories that hits a home run right off the bat and that makes me want to see, know and learn so much more. With the way this is structured and how the layers within the story come to life as well as how we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow make this one of the few truly epic stories that we need to see more of.