The Swamp Thing #4

The Swamp Thing #4

DC Comics 2021

Written by Ram V

Illustrated by Mike Perkins

Coloured by Mike Spicer

Lettered by Aditya Bidikar

Still trapped within the Green, Levi and Jennifer have encountered its denizens, both friendly and vile. But something is terribly wrong within the Green itself, and its origins may be closer to home than Levi thinks. As Swamp Thing, he must now use lessons learned to embrace his power and bring peace. But is he already too late? Have the seeds of discontent already been planted for the contagion to enter our world?

Before we get into the review I was wondering what happened to Jason Woodrue? I mean we’ve seen Extraño with Midnighter and Apollo but we’ve not seen the other New Guardians much, though a few are supposedly Global Guardians which is another title i’d love to see make a return. I’m thrilled we’re seeing him in the Green again though as he’s been a champion of the Green in the past. So maybe when this goes monthly we can get an arc that focuses on the Floronic Man. in the meanwhile I think that Levi and Jennifer make a great pair for the new Avatars of the Green. Whether they like it or not they’ve both been there and are both touched by and connected to each other and the Green.

I’m a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely. The character development is bloody brilliant and as the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter continue to flesh these characters out. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story as it reveals the twists and turns along the way keeps us glued to the page.

I really enjoying how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, evolve and strengthen. These layers of course provide all the characterisation as well as lead into the main arc or swirl through and around it while providing us with new information. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how we see it move the story constantly forward is so beautifully achieved.

The interiors here bloody mindbogglingly gorgeous. The linework that we see is phenomenal and then with its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level and quality of detail work is mind numbing. The sheer amount of work on each page is beyond expectations and ignites the readers imagination and creativity in some truly wondrous ways. Perkins has gone so far above and beyond what I’ve seen him do and he keeps just doing more and more and blowing me away continually issue after issue. How we see the backgrounds utilised throughout is sheer magnificence to behold and then to see how they work within the composition in the panels to bring us the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is phenomenal. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the perspective and angles in the panels show a masters eye for storytelling. Spicer’s colour work is equally as brilliant. How we see the various hues and tones within he colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is brilliantly rendered. We see a colour master at work here and the shades, hues and tones themselves in the Green not only leave me in awe but I can’t wrap my head around just how good it looks.

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The Swamp Thing is one of the most underrated and under utilised characters and this is a great opportunity to have him become that great bridge character between the worlds of magic and science. Plus now that we’ve seen this memory aspect I want to see previous generations of the Green’s Avatars and if they interacted with the likes of the All-Star Squadron or Freedom Fighters. The potential for this series is limitless and it has to continue with this creative team it’s just brilliantly written and illustrated so that it engages the reader and leaves them with awe and wonder in their souls.