1.0

I really, really wanted to like this. I fell in love with Swamp Thing when reading his run in the new 52. He was different, the ton was different from most comics I had read, and while sometimes his arcs and concepts were completely convoluted and confusing; without context, early references to "The Green," make no sense, I still loved the story and characters.

I saw this graphic novel in the public library's new section and decided to give it a try. I was intrigued by the moniker on the cover of horror, and I really liked the art style when I flipped through.

Well, after reading it, the art style is definitely the strongest bit of this. It's striking, interesting, and tells a lot of the story by itself. The story itself, however... well its a hot, unconnected mess.

At first, it is a series of short stories, the only connector is Swamp Thing. This wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but it sort of worked. The first story is the strongest in the whole volume, and was actually intriguing, but leaves a LOT of unanswered questions.

However, right around story 3-4, they start to connect into a larger plot of elements eskew, the world in trouble, blah, blah, blah, and here is where it began to lose me. There are still some interesting things here, the witch Briar brings an interesting dynamic to Swamp Thing, but the monsters they are fighting, and even the being they are trying to find and stop, has like NO meaning to me. This may be in part because the first 1/3 of the story is used on things not connected to this larger plot, or really the characters involved.

In addition, until the showdown with the big baddie, each chapter basically has Swampy and Briar facing down various monsters representing the elements, but these are really rushed, introduced, and over in one chapter. This leaves no room for tension, character growth, or even character attachments.

I think the concepts here had some potential, swamp monster fights other monsters... cool, but it just doesn't deliver. Not worth reading