Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #2

The series has gotten a little better, but that was easy to do so I won't start celebrating.  The first issue failed to establish care care for John Costantine and with my fellow viners who voted before me, many of them gave in the 4 range it seemed, so they seemed to like the entertainment of the superficial level and that is the better I speak of.  I still don't like this mini for the same reasons, there is not organic storytelling, just forced assimilation into the DCU.
 

I questioned in the first issues' review in where would DC consider the Vertigo Voice Split.  With allusions to issue #71 of Swamp Thing Vol. 2 (Fear of Flying), it looks like DC is dating Swamp Thing in the Rick Veitch run, so may be Veitch can tell his Jesus story one day.  Another concept recycled was the idea Alec Holland and Swamp Thing are different, a concept explored in Swamp Thing Vol. 4 when Andy Diggle resurrected a "zombie" like Alec.  The use of Superman might be the only new twist to old plots and that is all it is, an old plot with a new twist.  DC Comics is slowly becoming a Marvel clone in this artificial landscape. When dealing with John Constantine we can point out Synchronicity and I wonder if we can see DC filling their staff with Former Marvel guys like Jim Lee and Bob Harris as coincidence. 
 
I don't know if I should thank Jonathan Vankin for trying to make jokes Hellblazer fans would catch, but I feel I shouldn't since they are again superficial and forced.  An example of a joke was when Superman flies with John and John asks to smoke.  Superman goes on to say "Those things will kill you, Constantine."  John replies "No Worries. They tried that LONG ago".  That banter is a nod to the Garth Ennis run of Hellblazer in which Ennis give John Cancer.  This is interesting they would do this because again the Ennis arc started with no Vertigo Banner.  The which over would be between issues #62 and #63.  Issue #63 celebrating John Constantine's 40th Birthday.  May be DC is being strict to separate the two John Constantine's to the moment he is given the gift of real time aging, which is fair to say was in issue #63.

Gallery

 
 Sorry if this seems as a spoiler, but by looking at the standard cover of this issue, we can see John Constantine covered in "The green", much like how Batman's Poison Ivy is.  This is because John is infected by the green.  This doesn't make sense why the spread is so slow, because Swamp Thing hi-jacked John's body to have sex with Abby so that Tefe could be conceived.  This idea of John's hi-jack is joked about a few times with John talking about their rather "special history".    With all these nods to the none Vertigo banner era I am reassured that the direction this John Constantine is going is the wrong way.  Instead of becoming a whole different character, DC is reminding guys like me that this one is a fake and this change is history is not John's real life, not Swamp Things as well.  DC is not respecting their history with all the changes they are building up for.  If comic book characters are considered modern mythos like some have suggested, then mythos shouldn't change.  Would Thor be a good story is Loki was the God of Thunder and Thor the God of pranks?  Myths need to have solid origins and this perversion of John Constantine and Swamp Thing has yet to prove to me that it will build a better foundation then the 25 plus years in which Alan Moore and the Vertigo Voice has changed comics landscape.  If DC wanted to mash-up the Constantine and Swamp Thing history, only to reserve it, they really should of hired Grant Morrison to write it, he is pulling it off with Batman, Vankin is really letting me down.
 
If this series entertains you, then it did one good thing.  That is to expose you to characters that most overlook.  I humbly challenge anyone who has never read Swamp Thing and/or John Constantine before the DCU revert and read some of the older stories to see the difference.  The Vertigo versions of both men have had organic lives because they grew with us in real time.  To rejoin the snap shot four colored world of Superheroes is a step back for these characters. If you are not liking this series, then I hope DC learns soon how this move was a mistake.  
 
Cheers
- Silkcuts "The biggest John Constantine fan around"