Swamp Thing #21

This is my favourite series, and while Snyder's run is still my favourite even though it had bad points, Soule has proved himself a worthy successor and his run has improved every issue.

Plot

Capucine appears and asks Swamp thing for sanctuary, but before anything can happen Swamp Thing is shot by two men and after a fight Capucine kills them. Swamp Thing then asks the Parliment of trees who Capucine is.

Review

Okay before I say anything let me tell you why I love Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing is my favourite character because he's one of the most complex characters in comics stuck between humanity and plant life, also Swampy's powers are near infinite because he can control all plant life in the world. Why am I saying this because this has all of that in this issue, plus loads more. This is probably one of the best issues of this series I mean issue 7 is still my favourite, but this comes very close, but now onto the review.

The Good

• I don't generally talk about covers, but this just looks so good Swamp Thing looks fantastic and the design and layout is good, but it's the outline of Capucine at the bottom that really makes this cover work.
• The first page is sort of a deep exploration (in a page) of the life in the Swamp not only is it a beautiful image, with lots of detail, a beautiful aerial image of the Swamp, but it's also kind of a nice introduction to the book and I think it's a clever bit of text as well.
• The new character introduced in this book is Capucine and well Soule makes her a intriguing character, because of not giving away all of the details of her past, she's a mystery character Swamp Thing doesn't know what to think of her, but she's related to Swamp Thing or specifically a Swamp Thing. Capucine also seems like a well rounded character and Soule has obviously put as much effort as possible to making her interesting, plus she's a pretty mean fighter.
• One of the main things I liked about this issue is the exploration of the green and past Swamp Things, little hints like how one Swamp Thing was a trilobite add a lot for me adding a lot of depth to the green and what has happened.
• Expanding on that point, one of the things that has always intrigued is past avatars of the green, but aside from glimpses of them and a large appearance in Swamp thing #0 (also the Animal man annual which I have not read) but in this we get properly introduced to one and he plays a major role in this issue and well basically he's Swamp monk Thing and he's the reason the Capucine comes into this book or something he did. This is a clever and interesting aspect of the issue that is helped by some beautiful panel borders and layouts like Yanick Paquette did when he was on the book. If Soule can incoprorate this more in to his run, but not so much that what happens in the present is only because of past events, but it works really well in this issue.
• This also is a sort of transition period between this arc and the next one as it explains last issues ending but begins the next arc with a very interesting ending, which obviously hints at a lot more to come.
• When the solicit was released I saw that Kano was going to be drawing it and as I've said in previous reviews I love what he has done with the book, but when the preview was released it was by Jesus Saiz at first I didn't know what to think. I've only seen Saiz artwork before once on Justice League #18 and as that issue was just talky throughout I couldn't really judge his art, but can Saiz do gaps in between Kano or can he just take over from Kano? His art on this is something else the detail on Swamp Thing and all the plants is incredible and it looks really realistic, also he uses the panel borders that Paquette used to great advantage while still retaining his own style with them and when we meet Swamp monk thing the panel borders and the colours are incredible, also the action in this looks really good as well.

The Bad

• Capucine looked a bit creepy in one or two panels but that may just be me.
• I'm not sold on the whiskey tree idea for the next arc, but I can't judge it yet and I can't hold it against this issue.

Verdict

Soule is creating a run that may be better than Synder's run or at least this issue is better than most of Snyder's issues. What really makes this great is how it introduces new characters and concepts, really all in the same place and it's a fantastic read from start to finish. This is one of the best issues of Swamp Thing and Swamp Thing continues to be one of the best of the New 52.

5 stars