alibi_shop (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alibi_shop) wrote2019-05-29 12:16 am
alibi_shop) wrote2019-05-29 12:16 am
Entry tags:
Swamp Thing reread, part 9
Swamp Thing #77-87 (1988-89)
Written by Rick Veitch, except #77 by Jamie Delano, #78 by Steve Bissette
Art: #77-78/#83-85 by Tom Mandrake/Alfredo Alcala, #79-82 by Veitch/Alcala, #86-87 by Tom Yeates
I've said a lot of good things about Rick Veitch so far, but, well... even though it sucks that he'll lose the gig after #87 due to corporate timidity (he wants to use Jesus as a character, and DC balks)... at this point it's probably for the best.
Veitch's weaknesses as a writer are now in full flower. His ideas come in several sizes: big ideas that are promising but don't seem to take the story anywhere (Swamp Thing traveling through time, Abby's pregnancy); medium-sized ideas that form a coherent story for an issue or two but just aren't that interesting (Anton Arcane does hideous things as a young man, Matt Cable gets experimented on again and finally dies); and tiny ideas that are weird and hilarious (Swampy fights Superman by traveling as a beam of light inside Superman's eyes, Swampy utterly destroys Camelot and everyone in it by growing gigantic legs to help the castle run away, then accidentally disappearing). He's still capable of writing decent prose, but when he tries for Moore-like levels of verbal cleverness (writing rhyming dialogue for Etrigan, using lots of words that start with "D" during a Sandman crossover) it just doesn't work. There's a general carelessness with stuff like people talking about "electromagnetism" in 1872, or Abby coming from "Bavaria". And, as the time-travel story takes over, we get cameos by dozens and dozens of DC characters with virtually no indication of what their deal is or why we should give a shit about them.
We also get a different take on the artwork. Tom Mandrake is fine; he doesn't have Veitch's eccentric flair, but his pencils are competent and his designs are sometimes interesting and, most importantly, he's not Tom Yeates. My least favorite of all Swamp Thing artists returns for the last two issues, and Yeates has gotten better at drawing some things but he hasn't gotten better at drawing the title character. Oh well.
The lack of any development on the Abby pregnancy storyline (which, due to some irregularity in the publishing schedule, seems to have gone on for 12 months) gave me time to think back to how that was set up, and... I think it didn't make any sense? That is, Swamp Thing went to a lot of trouble to get John Constantine to be the biological father, instead of literally anyone else in the world who wasn't 1. super-untrustworthy, 2. despised by Abby, and 3. contaminated with demon blood (a plot point from Hellblazer that Veitch actually acknowledged but then ignored). Was there any reason why it had to be him? Maybe I missed something, but judging by how the storytelling has been since then, I suspect I didn't. Anyway, I do want to find out what eventually happens with the baby (I know Tefé Holland is a character, but that's all I know) even if, or especially if, it isn't really what Veitch had in mind.
Inventories
Stuff that'll be in Vertigo comics later: The issue where Matt is hanging out in Eve's cave came out within a month of Eve's first appearance in The Sandman, but I'm not sure which was first. Either way, this sets Matt up to be Dream's next raven.
Non-human animals: Horses, some medieval ones and some Western ones. Mandrake draws a better horse than Yeates.
Swamp Thing origin recaps: None. I guess we'll see if Doug Wheeler is into them.
Next: Wheeler, Neanderthals, fungi
Written by Rick Veitch, except #77 by Jamie Delano, #78 by Steve Bissette
Art: #77-78/#83-85 by Tom Mandrake/Alfredo Alcala, #79-82 by Veitch/Alcala, #86-87 by Tom Yeates
I've said a lot of good things about Rick Veitch so far, but, well... even though it sucks that he'll lose the gig after #87 due to corporate timidity (he wants to use Jesus as a character, and DC balks)... at this point it's probably for the best.
Veitch's weaknesses as a writer are now in full flower. His ideas come in several sizes: big ideas that are promising but don't seem to take the story anywhere (Swamp Thing traveling through time, Abby's pregnancy); medium-sized ideas that form a coherent story for an issue or two but just aren't that interesting (Anton Arcane does hideous things as a young man, Matt Cable gets experimented on again and finally dies); and tiny ideas that are weird and hilarious (Swampy fights Superman by traveling as a beam of light inside Superman's eyes, Swampy utterly destroys Camelot and everyone in it by growing gigantic legs to help the castle run away, then accidentally disappearing). He's still capable of writing decent prose, but when he tries for Moore-like levels of verbal cleverness (writing rhyming dialogue for Etrigan, using lots of words that start with "D" during a Sandman crossover) it just doesn't work. There's a general carelessness with stuff like people talking about "electromagnetism" in 1872, or Abby coming from "Bavaria". And, as the time-travel story takes over, we get cameos by dozens and dozens of DC characters with virtually no indication of what their deal is or why we should give a shit about them.
We also get a different take on the artwork. Tom Mandrake is fine; he doesn't have Veitch's eccentric flair, but his pencils are competent and his designs are sometimes interesting and, most importantly, he's not Tom Yeates. My least favorite of all Swamp Thing artists returns for the last two issues, and Yeates has gotten better at drawing some things but he hasn't gotten better at drawing the title character. Oh well.
The lack of any development on the Abby pregnancy storyline (which, due to some irregularity in the publishing schedule, seems to have gone on for 12 months) gave me time to think back to how that was set up, and... I think it didn't make any sense? That is, Swamp Thing went to a lot of trouble to get John Constantine to be the biological father, instead of literally anyone else in the world who wasn't 1. super-untrustworthy, 2. despised by Abby, and 3. contaminated with demon blood (a plot point from Hellblazer that Veitch actually acknowledged but then ignored). Was there any reason why it had to be him? Maybe I missed something, but judging by how the storytelling has been since then, I suspect I didn't. Anyway, I do want to find out what eventually happens with the baby (I know Tefé Holland is a character, but that's all I know) even if, or especially if, it isn't really what Veitch had in mind.
Inventories
Stuff that'll be in Vertigo comics later: The issue where Matt is hanging out in Eve's cave came out within a month of Eve's first appearance in The Sandman, but I'm not sure which was first. Either way, this sets Matt up to be Dream's next raven.
Non-human animals: Horses, some medieval ones and some Western ones. Mandrake draws a better horse than Yeates.
Swamp Thing origin recaps: None. I guess we'll see if Doug Wheeler is into them.
Next: Wheeler, Neanderthals, fungi
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