WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Swamp Thing #8, on sale now from DC Comics.
For the past several months, the new Swamp Thing Levi Kamei has faced a literal baptism by fire as he faces off against the Suicide Squad. With the violent antihero Peacemaker leading a special detachment of Task Force X to take down the elemental superhero on behalf of Amanda Waller, the jungles of India have transformed into a war zone between the Avatar of the Green and some of the more unscrupulous figures within the DC Universe. And as this epic showdown finally reaches its show-stopping conclusion, Swamp Thing not only emerges triumphant but frees one major member of the Suicide Squad from being under Waller's unyielding thumb.
When Peacemaker led his team into India, each member was handpicked to specially deal with a target as elementally powered and seemingly unstoppable as Swamp Thing. However, plans quickly fell apart when Firefly was incapacitated while Parasite found himself overwhelmed by the power of the Green as he tapped in to cut off the source of Swamp Thing's abilities. Nightmare Nurse was able to gain a reprieve in the combat by accessing Levi's mind but willingly stepped away from the fighting. And in The Swamp Thing #8 -- by Ram V, Mike Perkins, Mike Spicer and Aditya Bidikar -- the superhero decisively ends the assault while directly dealing with its leader Peacemaker.
After dealing with a rampaging Chemo and out-of-control Parasite, the last person standing in Swamp Thing's way is Peacemaker, armed with specially designed weapons to destroy the superhero. Despite this arsenal, Swamp Thing easily overpowers the antihero and uses the Green to interface with him, discovering the explosive device Waller has implanted in Peacemaker's skull to coerce compliance with all of her orders. Deactivating the device while sending a false signal back to Waller to make her believe the bomb is still live, Swamp Thing urges Peacemaker to truly find peace rather than making war before bringing the confrontation to a serene finish as Peacemaker ponders Levi's words.
Peacemaker free of Task Force X's control puts Waller even further in jeopardy as the disgraced Suicide Squad director has recently been beset from all sides. After Waller was exposed to be covertly cloning Superboy for her own nefarious purposes, she and her team went on the run from the wider DCU superhero community. This setback came after Peacemaker actively plotted to overthrow Waller, feeling she was more of a hindrance to his obsessive quest for peace at any cost rather than a facilitator. Waller discovered this and was able bring Peacemaker back in line with the threat of his cranially implanted explosive device but, with the bomb deactivated, she has just lost her one trump card over him.
Swamp Thing's showdown with the Suicide Squad is a reminder just how powerful the elemental superhero is and underscores that Levi has begun to truly embrace the awesome abilities he is now capable of. And more than just another episode in the ongoing saga of Swamp Thing, the confrontation is sure to have even deeper consequences for the Suicide Squad moving forward as the biggest threat to Waller's authority from within Task Force X now secretly stands free and ready to resume his plans to seize control of the Suicide Squad for himself, setting the stage for a bloody internal struggle.