Swamp Thing by Brian K. Vaughan, Vol. 1

Swamp Thing (2000) #1

by Brian K. Vaughan, Roger Peterson (Illustrator), Cliff Chiang (Illustrator)

In this series from 2000, writer Brian K. Vaughan kicked off a new SWAMP THING series that starred Tefé Holland, daughter of Swamp Thing and Abigail Arcane. As a human/plant elemental hybrid, Tefé has incredible power--but as a hot-headed teenager, can she learn to control those powers and use them for good? Vaughan's sensitive stories send Tefé across the globe to play an unexpected role in remote regions threatened by ecological disasters.


Collects SWAMP THING (2000) #1-10 and a story from WINTER'S EDGE #3.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Dc Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 2014

About the author

Brian K. Vaughan is the writer and co-creator of comic-book series including SAGA, PAPER GIRLS, Y THE LAST MAN, RUNAWAYS, and most recently, BARRIER, a digital comic with artist Marcos Martin about immigration, available from their pay-what-you-want site www.PanelSyndicate.com

BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I mentioned in one of my status updates for this book, a lot of people are down on it because it doesn’t star Swamp Thing himself but his daughter, Tefé. I get it, to an extent; I suppose it’s like buying a Batman book and finding it’s actually all about Robin, with Bats only appearing in flashbacks. False advertising, I guess?

Personally, I didn’t have a problem with it. I really enjoyed going on the road (and the sea) with Tefé and her new friends (and enemies). Brian K. Vaughan’s writing is great (I mean, come on; this is the guy who writes Saga) and I’d’ve probably given this book 5 stars if I’d liked the artwork more.

I’m looking forward to reading volume two. ROAD TRIP! I call shotgun!

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because I loved Swamp Thing, Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing so much, I'm always willing to check out anything else Swamp Thing. I also think Brian K. Vaughan is brilliant... but I can't say that his brilliance was shining as brightly with this volume. It wasn't bad, but I also can't say that I looked forward to reading it. I didn't realise when I borrowed this that it's about his daughter. I guess I just wanted more of my badass Swampy.

2.5 stars

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had the good fortune to read some of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. Brian Vaughn's does a very creditable job with this volume. Though, to be fair, this isn't really about the Swamp Thing. This is about Tefe Holland, the Swamp Thing's daughter.

Tefe Holland's story is an interesting one. She looks human but has a completely different way of looking at things. She can be ruthless and cruel. She is a fascinating character. While Alec's Swamp Thing has a measure of a human conceptualization of morality, Tefe lacks this. Her journey to find herself and her beliefs within The Green I found to be exciting. I will not spoil this really excellent story by speaking of the plot. It's worth your time.

Does this stack up to Alana Moore's work? No. Not really. But it does an admirable job of trying. There are some excellent elements here. The big picture underlying ideas are present. The effect of humanity on nature, an exploration on morality and the value we place on "lives" (when we mean humans only). I really did like it. The artwork though is mediocre. That is a shame. When Moore's Swamp Thing came out-it had some radically different and quality art for it's time. This relatively new Swamp Thing deserves better quality art that this vaguely cartoonish style of art. I didn't care for it.

One last bitch- I know it's too much for Mr. Vaughn to actually know about what he speaks. Whenever a liberal git writes about the military it smacks about as much being true as a wealthy white suburban writing a book with black poor inner-city characters and tries to "keep it real". It fails. Miserably. Hey Brian Vaugh... the Vietnam war called and wants its tropes back. I speak of the character of Pilate. *sigh* He is every liberal's fantasy of their stereotypical Marine. Long before I knew he was "military"..I knew something was hinky. First he's out hunting a lion...and then yells at Tefe's character because he was about to shoot her. Which made me think..that the profile of a crouched woman in no way or shape resembles a lion. Why would you almost "blow her away"? Might as well blow away a golden retriever, a tomcat and some random flamingo. Trust me..if I'm looking for a target (human, animal, vehicle, etc) it has a silhouette that I'm looking for. SO a several hundred pound male lion and a 5'8" (?) 100 some pound girl crouched over are in no fashion the same. If you can not process that simple idea through your visual receptors within a second...well..uh...then..you do not need a weapon in your hands. At all. Then this d-bag makes it worse by thinking to himself about his hunting rifle ".......she could hit within an inch at 300 yards and if you're into killing things that's an impressive statistic." Um. Yeah? Well...in my dissolute youth I WAS into "killing things" and was rather good at it. I'm not impressed. Since a Marine in Boot Camp needs to be able to hit a man shaped target at 500 yards. With an M-16A2. No Scope. Which is not the same as 300 yards. Hunting rifle+scope. So no I'm not impressed you douche. Then it turns out he was in the Marines *groans* AND he was a Sniper *groans more* well Brian..you're going to have to add at least 600-700 more yards before any Marine Sniper is going to be impressed. Christ at 300 even Army Snipers wouldn't be impressed. Anyways Brian Vaugh continues with his stereotype vision of a "typical" Marine- this guy went AWOL (it is called UA for Unauthorized Absence..hasn't been AWOL since 'Nam) due to some stupid made up mission during the Invasion of Panama (which BTW was primarily an Army op..a Marine MEU and a SEAL team also came along-but mostly 82nd Airborne and Rangers.) First if you look at the panel..the girl he shoots? Same thing...just hunched over. There were at least 10 guys he could have shot. Nope. He HAS to shoot her. The only one in a crouched position. Turns out she had a baby too. Of course. They ALWAYS have babies. So this completely myopic imbecile blames his superiors. Why? They told him to engage and told him Panamanian Defense Forces wear civilian clothes and there are "no civlians"..ok cool..way to show how cold hearted the brass is..I get it..nice liberal view..cool..but hey..even with those cold hearted (and unrealistic..we're US Marines not Waffen SS) orders-NOWHERE did they say "Hey you myopic imbecile-shoot that woman crouched over there". No..that was all him. But he blames the Marines..and goes "AWOL" *sigh* Anyways according to him he fled before the Persian Gulf war happened and now has a dishonorable discharge. Yeah..yeah you do. Know what else? Since you were dealing with the Marine Corps. In the 1990's not the Vietnam Era. That means you did serious time. In Ft Leavenworth. Because the Marine Corps looks very dimly at UA. The charges are severe. So if he's a felon with a dishonorable discharge -he's probably not running around as a hunter with a rifle in a California safari park. But maybe in Vaughn's world it works that way. Christ the problem I have is-had you just given Pilate a normal background..he could still have been introspective...but nope you had to buy into a stereotypical image of what liberal types think the military is. That's just sad. Still I'm used to it..and now that I've said my peace about this stupid stereotypical characterization. It's really annoying...all that was missing was the infant impaled on a knife or a necklace of ears...oh and one last thing...the thing about Special Forces wearing blank dog tags...uh what? Where do liberals come up with this shit? Um hate to break it to you..if it's so damn secret then we ..wait for it...don't wear dogtags. *gasps* Pretty brilliant huh? We also don't use American weapons. American gear. American camo patterns. Get it? Blank Dog tags? seriously? Are you like 12 or something Mr. Vaughn? Watch a lot of G.I. Joe?

Other than that stupidity..this is a cool book. Great story. Tefe Holland rules. I really appreciate the questions she asks about humanity. I really like her brand of "justice". It may neither be human nor humanisit but it IS ,rather, nature and natural. Well done story, so-so art..and one token typical stereotypical caricature of a Marine (his only true fault in this story-that and the art) all add up to a great story. One of the best Swamp Thing adaptations I've read so far. Please Mr. Vaughn don't ever write about anything military again. Please. It hurts my head to read. But keep up this run of Swamp Thing-it's really good.

['kris Pung · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 out 5 horrific bloody stars!!

It should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of the different iterations of Swamp Thing throughout the years and Brain K Vaughan’s work usually hits all the right notes for me. So when I saw this at the library I had to snap it up quick Golem style.



First off this isn’t really a Swamp Thing book it’s completely centered around his daughter Tefe who is half human half elemental of the green and all badass. I mean if you’re stupid enough to cross her or the green you’re going to die in the most gruesome way possible. It’s kind of typical to most other Swamp Thing books were Tefe is struggling to keep her humanity after being brainwashed by the parliament of trees from a young age to be the destroyer of humanity (talk about being in a tight spot).

Without giving to much of the story away she sets off to find herself and trouble just kinds of finds her and she deals with it in true badass fashion, then sets off again.

The interior art was also a really nice mix of not super realistic or overly stylized and the color really popped, here’s an example.



As nice as the interior art is the covers are just magnificently awesome.



I whole heartedly recommend this book for any Swamp Thing, BKV, or horror fans.

Get this review and many more at:

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this Swamp Thing series when I read the original floppies. I'm thrilled to both see it (finally!) released as a pair of TPBs and to see that it holds up. You can see the seeds of Vaughan's Y: The Last Man (and Saga!), as we've got an episodic road trip across America. However, this is also a comic all its own. Tefé is a wonderful character thanks to her lack of compassion which makes her do horrible things. But even beyond that, Vaughan tells a compelling coming-of-age story full of unexpected turns and twists.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I jokingly tell people that I read more comic books now, at age 48, than I ever did when I was a kid, and it’s true. My appreciation for good writing, coupled with fantastic artwork, often in short 25-30 page bites, is more conducive to my dwindling ratiocinative and memory skills due to old age. Hell, I may not be able to get it up as quick as I used to, but I can read a comic book like a fuckin’ 15-year-old.

Anyhoo, perhaps owing to my age and my more mature reading abilities, I pay more attention to who is writing the comic books than I did when I was younger. I have found that, in the field of comic book writing, there are a few names that, for me, stand out.

In terms of just great contemporary comic book writing, Alan Moore kind of set the bar. Writers like Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison are certainly notable, too. Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Len Wein, Tim Seeley, Scott Snyder, Joe Hill, Ta-Nahisi Coates, Michael Bendis, G. Willow Wilson: all wonderful writers whose works will live on. I could name more, I’m sure, but I probably just haven’t read them yet.

One writer keeps popping up, though, that I absolutely love. Known for his writing on the TV series “Lost”, Brian K. Vaughan has also written several unforgettable and beloved comic book series, including “Saga”, “Y: The Last Man”, and “Runaways”. Whenever I see a comic book with his name listed among the writers, I have to pick it up and read it.

So, it was a pleasant surprise to see his name attached to a series that I have grown unbelievably fond of lately: “Swamp Thing”.

Vaughan’s run as writer for Swampy was short one (2000-2001), comprised of only 20 issues. It was long before the “DC New 52”, back when Vertigo was still doing amazing things (or anything, as DC pulled the plug on it completely last year).

Volume 1 of Vaughan’s “Swamp Thing” features the first 11 issues. Roger Peterson was the artist on these issues, and while his style isn’t my favorite (it’s a bit “cartoonish” for my taste), it’s not horrible.

Vaughan’s story is interesting in that Swampy is noticeably absent from the story, existing solely in flashback scenes. His focus is on Tefe Holland, the teenage daughter of Alec Holland and Abby Arcane. We actually don’t even know this until issue #2. So, sorry about that spoiler.

Tefe is a fascinating character because, like her dad, she doesn’t (and thusly we don’t) know if she is a force for good or unintentional force of evil. She does some pretty awful things in the story, but she isn’t always in control of her powers, either.

Due to weird circumstances (that I won’t get into, because that would be more spoilers), she is separated from her parents, still living in Louisiana. Indeed, they don’t even know that she is alive.

The Green keeps calling her, and she is soon on a quest to find the fabled Tree of Knowledge. You know, the one with the infamous apple that brought about the downfall of man. Yeah, apparently it’s real.

Unbeknownst to her, though, a shadowy force is on her trail, killing the innocent people that she stumbles across in her travels. She has gathered an entourage: Barnabas, a former firefighter whose face was disfigured in a wildfire, and Pilate, a former Marine sharp-shooter who is currently unemployed.

These are all broken people, with pasts that they are trying to forget or, at least, make up for. Vaughan is very good at these types of characters, making them believable and extremely likable.

This is definitely a unique and excellent take on the “Swamp Thing” mythos.

[Anna Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, the story was pretty mediocre. I liked the premise, but the episodic format made it less of a coherent plot. Also, the plot that did connect got somewhat confusing at points. Man, that art though...U-G-L-Y most of the way through, with brief reprieves.





Child-size Tefe has a head shaped like a cabbage-patch kid, only with hair. It's quite freakish looking. Overall, a waste of my time as I won't be continuing the series.

[Kandice · Rating 3 out of 5]

What to say. This was fine. The story was a little mish-mash for my taste, and added nothing to the Swamp Thing Saga. For me. I imagine that people much younger than I am may feel this is their introduction to that rich tradition. I hope so.

Swamp Thing has always been a warning to us stupid humans that we are killing our world. This is clearly the message within these pages as well, but I will stick with the originals.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is where Brian Vaughan began to register as a talent for me, and, upon rereading this fine collection of issues from early 2000s, it seems many of his persistent themes appear fully in these stories.
If you love Saga, you may love this, too. I do.
Great comics and art by collaborators Roger Peterson and Cliff Chiang here.
Recommended.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ever wanted to read a book about Swamp Thing that Swamp Thing isn't in? How about a book that focuses on his daughter, who's half human and half...swamp? And we can watch her run around and do very little of interest for like forever? And re-discover most of the stuff we already know about Swamp Thing's existence?

Ever wanted to watch Brian K. Vaughan try to be Alan Moore?

I like Brian K. Vaughan's stuff most times, but this one, woof, it was a snoozer.

[Aidan]

First half of this went down like ice cream, even early in his career when BKV was on it he reads so smooth. Unfortunately he lost me in the back half with a vague overarching mission and protagonist whose complicated comic book backstory comes across muddy making her difficult to understand. These characters work best with clean and simple origins that create a story engine going forward, and this book is at its best when focussing on Tefe’s fraught relationship with her estranged parents. I found myself wishing I got more flashbacks to Tefe’s upbringing with Swamp Thing to contextualize her present day actions, as the few moments where that happened were my favorite parts. I like how Tefe’s morally grey, impulsive, violent and emotionally confused nature keep this true to the Swamp Thing theme of a monster struggling to be human, but without the proper context of her upbringing Tefe is difficult to root for. Her behavior in back to back charged chapters of rape and suicide doesn’t help this problem. The art is a real eyesore in this era, and I couldn’t care less about the supporting guys who start having long meandering conversations that really show BKV’s naivety as a writer.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't Brian K. Vaughan's best work but it's pretty darn close to the top. This graphic novel reads like a collection of short stories that happen to feature Tefé Holland, the main character of this iteration of Swamp Thing. What makes this great when compared to say, the unfortunately bland volume that follows this, is that the story-line and mythology don't really matter but the moral conundrums and Black Mirror-like philosophies instead take front and centre. Though the overall plot doesn't come close to getting resolved, you'd be pretty satisfied to just read this one and ignore the second volume.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not what I expected. Be warned, this isn't about Swamp Thing. He's barely in it at all. Instead we follow his daughter.

The story, for what it is, isn't bad. But, it takes the wind out of your sails when the only reason you picked up the "Swamp Thing" book was to read about...Swamp Thing.

This title comes to a close in volume two. It wasn't a terribly long run. Maybe I'll appreciate that one more now that I know what to expect.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven. Some parts I was pulled right in, some parts I found myself struggling to pay attention. Of course my favorite part was the issue where Cliff Chiang did the pencils <3 <3

[Emily Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Brian K. Vaughan’s Swamp Thing, it is not Alec Holland is not the main character, but his daughter Tefé. With the help of John Constantine, Holland and his wife, Abby switched another girl’s body and memories with their daughter’s, in an effort to contain and restrain her abilities. Tefé, like her father, can not only communicate with the Green, but can also manipulate the Green. She is able to easily murder people who harm plants, and in truly horrific ways. As Mary Conway, she is offered the life of a normal teenager, with normal teenage friends and a normal teenage boyfriend. Aside from her deep interest and connection to plants, she behaves in all of the expected ways, until she finds herself betrayed, and her acts of revenge go beyond the capability of any typical teenager.

When Tefé begins to unravel her true identity, in part from a visit to the Green, she must decide whether she is on the side of plants or humans, as the plants want war against humanity for their crimes against them. Along the way, Tefé gathers allies, including Daphne, her laurel tree, Barnabas, and Pilate. Together, they look for the Tree of Knowledge and flee government agents.

A promising tale of rebellion and search for self, though the first volume does retread a bit of what the elder Swamp Thing has already been through.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting that this title is called Swamp Thing considering Alec Holland appears in only 3 of the 9+ issues collected here. Instead we follow his daughter, the enigmatic Tefe Holland who I find quite unlikable, making this tough reading. The stories are varied and give some intriguing looks at the human condition, but Tefe and her friends are so irritating that they lose some of their charm. The artwork is solid but unremarkable for the most part, bar the single issue by Cliff Chiang which is above average but nowhere near as good as his current work.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up expecting to read about Swamp Thing, but instead 98% of it is about his daughter who he had with Abbie Arcane. She's trying to figure out her place in the world as an Earth Elemental...kind of a twisted "captain planet" as my buddy said. The art is kinda wonky at times, and the expressions are laughable.

[Anders · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blah I didn't like this. The art is super boring for its period and the story is just strange to me. I don't know why the idea of taking Swamp Thing's plot and doing it again but with his daughter sounded good.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm about as big of a Brian K. Vaughan fan as can exist. I own every series he's ever created, from Runaways to Saga, and I love them all. He's always had an exceptional knack for subtle world building that takes place almost in the background, subconsciously, while the characters and their relationships take center stage.

Well, almost always.

Unfortunately, his Swamp Thing run, one of his earliest in comics, seems to predate him honing his skills. Over the past few years I've frequently found myself reading some of my favorite writers' earlier work, and it's often not as precise and defined as their later stuff, but usually you can see the glimpses of who they're going to become. It's kind of cool to see how much artists can grow as they continue down their path. With this book, though, I found myself struggling to identify any of Vaughan's strengths. It felt like reading something by a completely different writer. I mean, there is the whole "person on an individually- and globally-important journey" element he brings back in Y: The Last Man and Saga. But beyond that, this story is severely lacking.

I will say, I don't care that Swamp Thing himself is not in this much. I think it's kind of an interesting choice to focus on Tefe, Abby Holland and Swamp Thing's hybrid elemental daughter, who can control plants and animals, and who has yet to fully understand the scope of her powers. It's also interesting to allow her to question who she wants to be: an elemental who protects plants, an elemental who protects humans, or something in between. But, the journey itself just feels far too full of random encounters, coincidence, and bland side quests.

Probably the most glaring hole in this story, though, is the complete lack of a narrative drive for Tefe. When the story begins, she's tasked with finding The Tree of Knowledge, basically the tree from the Garden of Eden, which is supposedly going to teach her more about her powers. But she isn't told where it is, or even how to find it, so she literally just wanders in random directions doing random things, hoping the Tree presents itself.

Then, after a few issues of absolutely no forward progress in her search, she just gives up on finding the Tree at all. Then Tefe's quest goes from random searching to literally doing nothing at all. It gives you absolutely nothing to root for. Tefe is already a difficult character to like. She's difficult, selfish, and a full-blown murderer. To also not give us any indication of what she wants, or why she's doing any of this, or how she can accomplish anything, makes this series feel extremely aimless.

There are a couple of interesting moments, and Vaughan is clearly trying to build a storyline involving the Feds trying to track Tefe down. But even this is slow-moving and sparse, and it's barely explained why the Feds care about her besides the fact that "she's powerful" (as thousands of people are in the DC Universe).

Overall, this feels like a pretty significant misfire. Makes me want to go re-read Y or something to remind myself why I love Vaughan so much in the first place.

[Duncs Comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This is my review for both volumes)

Brian K Vaughan's run on Swamp Thing uniquely focuses on Tefe Holland, the daughter of Swamp Thing and Abby Holland, through the surrogate father John Constantine. Because she is an Elemental of the Green from such a young age, her powers are too dangerous, world-threatening in fact, and through some Constantine magic meddling, she is switched into the body of another young girl, Mary Conway, who dies as a result, and Tefe's memories and powers are temporarily suppressed.

Vaughan's primary storyline then is about the misguided and amoral Tefe, equal parts plant and human, seeking out the "Tree of Knowledge" to reconcile these conflicting parts of herself and decide what actions she should take. Tefe has the power to destroy either all plant life OR human life, and thinks this either/or dilemma is her burdensome purpose in life. Vaughan frames this as the "Lady or the Tiger", two doors of fate. Swamp Thing himself has long since taken a stance of non-committal, removing himself from human society in an attempt to let the two coexist.

The story concludes with the idea of the power of chance, when given an impossible decision between Option A or B, choose Option C... Effectively, Tefe takes the same path that her father did.

I am super intrigued by the complexity of Tefe's character and would love to see this arc of Swamp Thing revisited one day. Gradually as you read it becomes apparent that this is not your typical Swamp Thing story, and we are not going to get a tonne of wonderful imagery of the Green, but rather, the focus is largely on Tefe's experiences in the human world and her internal conflict. It's an eco-thriller more than it is a supernatural horror. In a sense, it reads like a Netflix series, grounded as if a live-action show rather than a mind-bending hallucinatory comic book.

Whilst Tefe's journey is interesting, it is also quite convoluted. The other layer to her story is that she is technically the biological daughter of Constantine, and reflects his chicanery. This is another cool but confusing component of her character. I can see if this may be why her character hasn't been picked up again recently, there's a whole lot of continuity mess here, considering her solo book is her effectively needing to unpack all of this stuff.

The other negative I have with these volumes is that the art is a little uninteresting and cartoony at times. A more impressive art-style may elevate this title to being a Vertigo staple. As such, despite Vaughan's skillful dissection of the character, I think this has become an obscured, hidden gem in the Swamp Thing mythos.

[One Flew · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a goddamn mess.
There are the bones of a decent story hidden somewhere under the endless exposition, questionable artwork and truly bizarre character motivations. I like Brian K Vaughan's series Y the last Man but trying to continue on from Alan Moore's ground breaking Swamp Thing run is not an easy task and he didn't even come close. The writing doesn't just suffer in comparison to Moore's work, it's bad in general. The main problem is Tefe, she's a terrible protagonist.

Moore's Swamp Thing was a plant monster with the memories of a man, caught in a existential nightmare world beyond his understanding or control.

While Mr Vaughan tries to write a character that is strugling between her human side and plant side, in the end creating a character that makes no sense at all. Here are a few highlights of Tefe's journey for comparison.

1. Tefe finds a man who sells flowers for a living, like a roadside florist. She is unhappy about the fact the man cuts the flowers so she uses her ability to almost kill him with pollen allergen.

2. Tefe meets Georgie, a girl who is a huge fan of a certain band (this is my favourite example). Tefe helps introduce her to the band at a party. Georgie is then gang raped by the entire band, then goes to Tefe for help. Tefe does harm the attackers, then victim shames Georgie for letting it happen. Here is the exact quote.
Georgie "What? Do you mean? You think this was my fault?"
Tefe "Not entirely, but i do think a part of you let this happen. You didn't have to get drunk, Georgie. You could have fought harder. You could have run away."

3. A family gets caught out after accidentely causing a forrest fire. Tefe and others rescue them, though when Tefe finds out the fire was the father's fault, she kidnaps the whole family and drives them around the country before deciding what to do to them.

I could quite happily continue to dump on this trainwreck of a book. I haven't even gotten into the absurd grass army general or vegetable samuri. Interesting but a complete failure.

[Nate]

Tefé Holland, daughter of Alec and Abigail Holland (Swamp Thing and Abby Arcane), is a teenager on the run. See, her parents think she’s dead after her carcass shows up next to two dead kids. But Tefé created that diversion after killing them in a fit of rage. Now, she’s traversing North America in search of purpose and something called the Tree of Knowledge, while a handful of agents follow her trail...

I thought this was pretty good. It’s definitely a Brian K. Vaughan comic, full of snappy, realistic dialogue and a teenage protagonist. It’s also an early BKV comic, because there’s some clunkiness and too much text at times. I haven’t read all of Swamp Thing v2, which this directly follows, but I knew enough about Tefé to catch on: Alec and Abby had Tefé to heal the rift between humanity and the Green, but the Green manipulated her into destroying mankind, so her parents shipped her away to another family. The first issue picks up when Tefé - mind-wiped by her second dad, John Constantine - is living as a different teen in a different family. This series skips at least a few years, because the last we saw Tefé she was much younger. Here, she’s still a confused, slightly sociopathic youth torn between her human nature and savage plant powers. A familiar trope, sure. But the tone of the series and characterization of Tefé gives it a uniqueness, even compared to previous Swamp Thing stories. I like each issue is basically a standalone story. The side characters are interesting, too, especially Barnabas and Pilate.

The art is the most glaring negative. I’m not familiar with Roger Peterson, but his style is, quite frankly, ugly. I guess Vaughan was too unknown at the time to work with bigger names.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing to be aware of is that the protagonist of this book is Tefé Holland, daughter of Swamp Thing, and the titular character is only in the book for a few frames of flashback. This has the advantage of making for a confused and tormented lead character, a sort of coming-of-age element. Tefé struggles with who she is, and this leads to some wonky behavior. At times, she doesn’t do what would be expected of a superhero, but at other times she does, and this makes her character feel constantly off-kilter. One doesn’t straight away develop an affinity for the character, or – if one does – it comes and goes as she responds to varied situations in various ways. However, this seems to be intentional, a reflection of the fact that she doesn’t know if she’s the protector of the plant world, of humanity, of both, or of neither. She’s at once a pretty and sweet young woman and a terrifying god-like Elemental. She has a couple of “sidekick” characters, Barnabas and Pilate that help lend humanity and provide contrast (given the hardcore nature of these two men, they tend to make Tefé seem even more extreme as they are the ones to talk her down.)

While the Swamp Thing and its extended character-verse is heavy with environmental message, the book is not written to bludgeon the reader with rebukes or preach to the choir. It keeps the lessons subtle enough that I didn’t feel the book swerving into preachy mode, and it remains entertaining throughout.

I enjoyed this volume. It can feel a little disjointed and might read more smoothly for someone who’d read previous Swamp Thing series, but with attentive reading, one can certainly follow the action. (Another potential advantage of it focusing on the daughter character.) [FYI- This is the third of seven series.]

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Swamp Thing is a series that comes and goes, and most of it is, like superhero stories that go on too long, mediocre. But I was excited to see there was a volume I hadn't read that was written by Brian K Vaughan. Alas, this is not the writer you would recognize from Saga, Volume 1, Paper Girls, Volume 1, Runaways, Vol. 1: Pride and Joy, or even Ex Machina, Vol. 1: The First Hundred Days. This is pretty much a clone of Mark Millar's style, and it is grating.

The dialog is bad. The premise is, at first intriguing, then pretty dull. None of the ideas are fresh. Because I'm a completist, I'll probably try and get through volume two, but I'm not excited about it. And if you're not a completist, there's no real reason to read it. It's not even really about Swamp Thing, but about his daughter. An interesting character in theory, but very poorly executed here.

[Logan Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, my opinion of Brian K. Vaughan hit rock bottom after reading this. Truthfully, I stopped wasting my time trying to slog through this mess when the samurai Swamp Thing showed up. Goddamn that was stupid. Anyways, this was the worst run of Swamp Thing I have read to date, for a number of reasons:

1) The art was quite bad. Not terrible, but a solid 3/10.

2) The writing pretty much awful. It seemed like every other issue started with the narrator writing something dumb or cheesy, BKV noting to us that it was dumb or cheesy, the narrator trying again with similar results, repeat for 3 pages. Then Tefe (the main character, NOT SWAMP THING) seems completely irrational and has the strangest motivations.

3) The characters were terrible. I take that back, the established characters like Swamp Thing and Abby were fine, but they appear in less than 5% of the book. All the other characters that BKV created are shallow and unlikable.

4) THIS IS A SWAMP THING COMIC. WHERE IS SWAMP THING? I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIS DAUGHTER. Leave it up to BKV to come up with the great idea of writing a Swamp Thing comic without Swamp Thing. I think he should direct the next Godzilla movie. It will be so edgy and subversive because it will be a Godzilla flick without Godzilla. Brilliant! Then we will fool people into wasting their time consuming it.

5) There is barely a story. Each comic sort of stands alone, which would be fine if they were not individually so boring. Also the message BKV is trying to send occasionally seems pretty... awful.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian K. Vaughn is a fan favorite these days, with Saga basically being a license for Image to print money. DC was smart in releasing this previously uncollected run in trade paperback to cash in on the success of that series. Before his brilliant Y: The Last Man, before Ex Machina, Vaughn did this radically different Swamp Thing series for DC's Mature Readers imprint, Vertigo.

Those looking for the further adventures of the Swamp Thing (Alec Holland) and Abigail Arcane Holland will be disappointed. While they are in this series, they only occasionally appear, with the main focus being on their daughter Tefe Holland. Tefe is the human child of Alec and Abigail who can tap into The Green. She is seeking out purpose in this world, so she sets out to find The Tree of Knowledge.

Like all so-called Mature Readers series, there are themes not appropriate for all ages, such as sexual violence and swearing. These things could have undermined the craft and value of Vaughn's writing, but he pulls it off and makes it seem like a part of the story and not sensationalist or fanboy* pandering trash.
*Term used in the original pejorative.

While Vaughn's writing is the star of the show, writing alone doesn't make comics great. You have to have great artwork, too. Roger Peterson is serviceable if unremarkable. His art is just decent enough to keep this from sinking but isn't much to my liking. Your mileage may vary.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This took a really embarrassingly long time to finish. I think this could be a book for some people but it was not for me. I like to know where the story is going. The plot was continuously changing for no reason other than the writer wanted to keep things interesting? Half-way through I didn't care about the character's anymore because they were constantly changing. Maybe it made more sense when it was published 15 years ago and that's what I'm hung up on.

The very beginning was all mysterious and then why did there have to be a million different characters? Not all these side stories were even fun. I'm not saying every side story needs to have a purpose but it became so detached from the main story (not sure what the main story was supposed to be) that it was more of a collection of short stories than one volume piece.

Main artwork like the cover and the chapter pages were really awesome. But then the rest of the art did not have a quarter of as much care to it. I genuinely got confused about characters because they started to look the same.

[Zec · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Swamp Thing and Y: The Last Man, so the prospect of a Swamp Thing comic written by Brian K. Vaughan seemed like a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, this comic barely has any Swamp Thing. Boooo! Getting past the fact that a comic book titled Swamp Thing is not at all about the goddamn character, this is a pretty decent comic. Much more character-driven in style, the comic follows Swamp Thing’s daughter’s angsty and meandering journey as she tries to find her place in the world. The story arcs are inconsistent with my favourite being her conflict of whether to fight for the plants or the humans. There doesn’t seem to be a thematic anchor for the series other than Tefe searching for something or someone to latch onto. Some good ideas, but the volume never really picks up any significant momentum or contain any powerful emotional moments. The art is good but can save what is a messy and cluttered story.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This must have been a hard sale when it first came out. First and foremost, Swamp Thing is pretty much not in this collection. What you have instead is a series that is focused on Tefé Holland, daughter of Swamp Thing and Abigail Arcane. A character I didn't know existed at the start of this book. Tefé is on something of a walkabout throughout this collection, trying to find the Tree of Knowledge and figure out where her loyalties and interests lie in the world. Is she more connected to the plant or animal world? It feels a little like the Green Lantern/Green Arrow team up if, wait for it, Green Peace consulted on the scripts and story lines. The collection overall is good and inventive but was crazy hard to get into and that feels like an unforced error. If the book would have come with a "previously on" page at the beginning it would have been a huge help and feels like a big missed opportunity that must have alienated some readers.

[Nathanael Eoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story, though the change in focus to a newish main character was a bit unexpected. I've not really followed Swamp Thing since the Moore revamp in the '80s, and I'm really glad I decided to choose the series with Vaughan at the helm. Goes deep in some places, though not as deep as Vaughan's other major work (or as deep as Moore's version).

It's not a slow read, but I did feel like this collection of 11 or so issues was more backstory and setup than narrative, and it made it a bit difficult to finish knowing I'd have go all the way to the next volume (rather than the second half of the first volume) to get the story truly underway.