The Swamp Thing Leans Hard Into Horror With Its New Protagonist
- WRITER
- Ram V.
- Artist
- Mike Perkins
- Letterer
- Aditya Bidikar
- Cover Artist
- Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer, Francesco Mattina
- Publisher
- DC Comics
- Price
- 3.99
- Release Date
- 2021-03-02
- Colorist
- Mike Spicer
DC's Infinite Frontier has just launched a bold, new era for the DC Universe and, with it, a new Swamp Thing wielding the elemental force of the Green to keep all plant-life on Earth safe. For the first time since the New 52 era, Swamp Thing stars in a non-digital, solo comic book title, helmed by Ram V and Mike Perkins, for a 10-issue miniseries. And with this opening installment, the creative team brings a bold, new era to the Swamp Thing mythos that reminds readers why the elemental superhero works best as a full-on horror title, as Ram and Perkins deliver supernatural terror and a mounting sense of dread from cover-to-cover to riveting effect.
The latest Swamp Thing is an Indian man named Levi Kamei who is still haunted by his past as he arrives in the United States. With his monstrously transformative powers over the Green barely in check, Levi does everything he can to maintain control and cling to his own humanity. And as Levi grapples with what he has become, he finds himself in the American Southwest investigating a grisly mystery, with a supernatural creature embarking on a bloody killing spree through the desert that requires Levi's strange, new talents to bring down.
Ram is no stranger to writing Swamp Thing, having previously penned a different avatar of the Green in a supporting role on Justice League Dark and working with Perkins on the Future State: Swamp Thing miniseries. With Levi as the first Indian protagonist in a DC superhero comic book, there is an added personal touch to Ram's scripting. While Levi's torment is the underlying thread running through the issue, Ram's real focus here is the building horror. With Levi constantly on the edge of his elemental nature, Ram really plays up Swamp Thing as more of a curse than a privilege and, while not a particularly new approach, it does imbue his narrative with a constant sense of suspense and mounting unease -- there's a potentially a more ravenous monster than Swamp Thing out there, but it might not be that much worse than the Swamp thing
While Ram and Perkins' Future State miniseries certainly delved into horror on a post-apocalyptic scale, it was also a more contemplative meditation on the nature of humanity among monsters. Here, Perkins, working with colorist Mike Spicer, is crafting something much more unsettling and viscerally terrifying. There is a surreal quality to the artwork, elevated by Spicer's color palette readily employing orange and green tones, that gives this story something more in line with Swamp Thing's Vertigo adventures than his solo tales during the New 52 era. While ostensibly set in the DCU, this is a story that feels very much like a self-contained story in its own isolated, little pocket; that makes it feel more dangerous and makes its narrative peril more wholly effective.
Swamp Thing fans have a lot to be thankful for, and this opening issue suggests even greater things to come for Levi Kamei, as he settles into role as the DCU's latest Champion of the Green. Ram and Perkins continue to showcase their creative chops working together, topping themselves from their recently concluded Future State miniseries by placing a greater emphasis on horror and tightening the scope to their beleaguered protagonist. And with the mystery behind Levi's dark gift and the gruesome mystery that he has stumbled into only just beginning, readers are in for one hell of a scary ride.