The swamp monster (he should be offended for such an ugly translation of the word “thing”), the alter ego of Allec Holland, is not used to playing the first violin in the DC world, and yet remains one of the most respected figures in the record’s output. Much credit goes to Alan Moore and his series from 1982. In addition to comics, Monster was also released in a cinema – directed by the master of horror, Wes Craven – and several series (including animated). The last television incarnation, despite positive feedback from fans and critics alike, was canceled after the first season. All these works are also connected by the fact … that I do not know any of them. My contact with the marsh so far has been limited to Injustice 2 , where it was one of the warriors available in the DLC. Hence, my assessment of Snyder’s work will be limited to what the comic is in itself, not in relation to its predecessors.
Potworzin of Bazhin
The Snyder Swamp Monster was created as part of New 52 (known as Nowe DC ), an initiative that is a specific soft reboota universe aimed at attracting new readers. In this way, many of the existing elements of the presented world have been reset, but at the same time the heroes have not been moved back to the very beginning – for example, such Batman has only been working for a few years, but has already had all the Robins. The same applies to the adventures of Allec Holland, who before the beginning of the comic book plot has already died once, reborn as a Swamp Monster, lost his life again and returned to the world of the living in human form. However, he will not be allowed to live a peaceful life for long. Throughout the ages, there has been a balance between three forces on Earth: Green (flora), Red (fauna) and Rotting (death) standing against them. Until the latter, thanks to the wicked Anton Aracane, goes on the offensive and takes a bloody toll. The only hope for saving mankind is the Green and Red defenders: Swamp Monster and Animal Man.
Snyder’s Cut
As I mentioned in the introduction, this time Snyder delivered a comic that reads well from start to finish. In fact, this is probably the best title of this writer I have dealt with. While the reader may initially feel like he’s thrown into the deep end, it eventually gets clarified as the story unfolds. Again, the first part seems better to me, because at the beginning the story has a more intimate dimension and focuses on the hero’s internal conflict. Holland is an interesting character who treats a superpower as a burden he doesn’t want to bear. Only the situation forces him to transform into the Monster again. It’s not Batman or Superman who, in addition to protecting humanity, also have a private life. For Holland, transformation is final and involves the loss of humanity. The second half of the comic is already typical: The monster and Animal Man decide to face the Decay instead of running away. Things take an unexpected turn, however, and the heroes are thrown into the future, where almost all of humanity has succumbed to Decay. Arcane has also managed to master the superheroes and transform them into creatures from nightmares. In these circumstancesThe Swamp Monster is becoming the next action crossover, although fortunately it does it well. The swamp creature is constantly faced with rotten variations of heroes and villains, which is part of a popular format of end-of-the-world events . DC comics with alternate realities, in which the story unfolded, are not scarce on the market (and after the Swamp Monster , Cyborgs from Future’s End, bad versions of the Injustice superheroes and the recent “zombies” from DCeased), so it’s a shame Snyder didn’t stay more subtle. History would defend itself without including characters from the universe. Nevertheless, even this change of climate brings with it a lot of good in the form of great action scenes. The monster uses a whole range of buffs in combat: it will grow wings, this will reach the size of a kaiju . Praise Snyder for the fact that even the latter part does not lose its gloom, so that the reader does not feel like dealing with two different titles.
Red
I must admit that I did not expect so many horror elements in the mainstream comic before reading it. Especially that the Swamp Monster in many places refers to a body horror movie that David Cronenberg would not be ashamed of himself. Rot can be really creative in how the bodies break down. What is not here: from the corpses with twisted necks (like a variation on zombies, but even more terrible), various types of creatures consumed by cancer (resembling a stranger from Something ), and finally clumsy versions of superheroes. Snyder has no brakes in places and some scenes are even shocking – if someone doesn’t like the sight of torn children, he definitely shouldn’t reach for this title.
Floristics
In the case of a comic book that consists of over twenty notebooks, it is difficult to achieve consistency in the visual layer. And that’s what it is with the Swamp Monster,where a few cartoonists have appeared. The chief illustrator, Yanick Paquette, is definitely the best of them. The frames that surround the frames are an absolutely fantastic addition. Instead of simple black dividing lines, the artist used vines-like borders filled with leaves, flowers and abstract forms. A simple treatment, yet unique. I only have a small problem with one element of the visual layer, and I can’t even blame the artists for that. Well, the main evil, Anton Arcane, has a very poor character design. I suspect that this is an accretion from the past, which no one wanted to interfere too much, but among the great monsters, the main avatar of Rotten comes out really poor – like an oversized gibbon with a malocclusion. And when he parades naked all the time, it’s hard to be serious about him.
Only Animal-Man is missing
Egmont decided to release the Swamp Monster in its entirety, without dividing it into parts. In this way, the reader was treated to as many as 520 pages in hardcover typical for DC Deluxe editions. Unfortunately, this is not the full story, but only half of it. Animal Man only makes a guest appearance, as his adventures are presented in its own title, written by Jeff Lemire. The Canadian screenwriter and cartoonist in one is extremely popular in Poland, so it’s hard for me to understand why Egmont omitted this title. Nevertheless, the Snyder comic itself turned out to be quite a surprise to me. The Swamp Monster skillfully blends superhero and horror themes, and is the first DC comic book in a long time that I’ve genuinely enjoyed reading.
