‘Legend of the Swamp Thing Halloween Spectacular #1’ (review)

Written by James Tynion IV, Vita Ayala, Ram V.,
Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Cullen Bunn, Julian Lytle
Art by John Timms, Emma Rios, Christian Ward,
Mike Perkins, Dominike “Domo” Stanton
Published by DC Comics

I miss Swamp Thing.

He used to have a good presence in comics.

Now, he is sort of a secondary character which is a shame. He is much more rich than that.

Nobody has told a good Swamp Thing story in a long time. I was hoping that this would be a return to form.

Writer Ram V. and artist Mike Perkins start things off with a typical “missing boy” story. We see two park rangers going into the forest at the beginning of the issue looking for the boy. Of course Swamp Thing gets involved. It is an obvious story with an obvious wrap up. Oh, well. At least the art by Perkins is good.

Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Dominike Stanton are up next for a terrible story that links Swamp Thing to a Roman ritual. It is just bad.

The next one by writer Vita Ayala and artist Emma Rios is the first decent one of the issue. It takes place on an island in 1948. Though it is short, it does show how the spirit of Swamp Thing was infused with this island. It is interesting enough and the art by Rios is just plain awesome.

The next story is pretty bad again. It is written by Julian Lytle and drawn by John Timms. It takes place during World War II in the South Pacific. It shows again Swamp Thing in this time period and how he had an influence in the war. The art by Timms is good but it definitely fails to capture the imagination.

The highlight of the issue is the story written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Christian Ward. It shows a bunch of guys on a ship who come across an island in the middle of the ocean that happens to be Swamp Thing! It is actually well written and the art by Ward is tops.

Ram V and Mike Perkins bookend the issue with a story that wraps things up in a weird way.

Overall, it looks like nobody had any idea what to do with this character anymore. It definitely shows here as this is a lackluster special that could have been great.

Maybe next time.

RATING: C-