(2004) Rick Veitch and Alfredo Alcala, Titan Books, £10.99, trdpbk, 160pp, ISBN 1-840-23994-8
Once upon a time a Man called Alan Moore wrote Swamp Thing for nearly four years but, back in 1987, gave up the title with issue 64. While Moore wrote it, it was easily the best comic on the newsstands. Then some other poor bugger had to pick up with issue 65 and follow the hardest act in the (then) comics universe. Rick Veitch was the poor bugger in question and, as choices go, it was not a bad one. It helped a lot that Alfredo Alcala stayed with the book - it was always a joy to see his work (sadly Alfredo died in April 2000 after a long battle with cancer). But... Well, some of us will remember this as the beginning of the end for Swampy. It was all downhill from here, despite a brave attempt (later on) by Nancy Collins to keep up the high standard. Nowadays there's the Diggle and Breccia version, and what a disappointment that is! Oh well... Anyway, back to this current volume. It mainly concerns itself with the new Earth elemental created by the Parliament of Trees to take over from Swampy, who was thought dead (but was just in outer space, if you remember). Somewhere it must find a home... The six issues herein heavily feature John Constantine, Solomon Grundy, the pop psychologist Huntoon, and Swampy's showdown with the Parliament, and there's still lots of good material (even if it is not Moore). But... Personally I would not have bothered continuing this run of trade paperback reprints after the final Moore volume, but DC seems to think there are still bucks to be made, so what the hell. Maybe they are right. But.
Tony Chester
See also: Swamp Thing: A Murder of Crows and Swamp Thing: Bad Seed.
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