Swamp Thing by Brian K. Vaughan, Vol. 2

Swamp Thing (2000)

by Brian K. Vaughan, Giuseppe Camuncoli (Illustrator), Marc Hempel (Illustrator)

In this series from 2000, writer Brian K. Vaughan kicked off a new Swamp Thing series that starred Tefe Holland, daughter of Swamp Thing and Abigail Arcane. In this concluding volume, Tefe is on the run from government agents intent on wiping her out of existence, along with anyone she's come in contact with. But when Tefe helps a friend escape, her father, a ruthless congressman bent on harming the environment, she runs headlong into radical environmentalists whose own plans are every bit as dangerous as the politician's. Plus: Tefe's father, the real Swamp Thing, returns at last! But why has he chosen this moment to make his reappearance? Collects: Swamp Thing (2000) #10-20, material from Vertigo Secret Files and Origins: Swamp Thing (2000) #1

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fiction, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

264 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 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]

Not as strong as volume one, largely due to the book being cancelled, forcing Vaughan to wrap things up sooner with a bit of a weak ending. There were some plot threads left dangling, too, which is frustrating.

This being said, I still really enjoyed it, despite its faults. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

[Scott Rhee]

Brian K. Vaughan, author of fan-favorite graphic novel series “Saga” and “Y: The Last Man”, brought his visionary talents to the pages of DC’s “Swamp Thing” in 2000. In a 20-issue miniseries, Vaughan took a daring and unique approach: the titular hero wasn’t even featured in the story, except in flashback and in the final issue.

Vaughan’s “Swamp Thing” focused on Tefe Holland, the daughter of Alec and Abigail Holland. Possessed with eerie elemental powers deriving from the Green, like her dad, Tefe struggles between her human side and her inhuman side. She is constantly straddling the line between saving humanity or destroying it for the sake of the planet.

With her motley crue of an entourage—-a disfigured young Native American named Barnabas and a grizzled ex-soldier named Pilate—Tefe is tasked with the almost-impossible quest of finding the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the fabled tree of the Book of Genesis. You know the one: talking serpent, tempting red apple, brought about the Fall of Man. Well, apparently, it’s real.

Hot on her trail is a psychopathic government agent that is killing everyone that Tefe comes in contact with: waitresses, police officers, Joe Schmoes that she just bumped into on the sidewalk. Oh, and there’s also the big green samurai. But enough about that…

Vaughan’s “Swamp Thing” was an entertaining, well-written, enlightening, and fun take on the Swampy mythos, but the problem with all of Vaughan’s stories is that they have to end. I’m not sure if he ever intended to return to the story of Tefe Holland (the finality of her tale suggests not, and I have done the whole Google thing, and her story seems to end with Vaughan’s 2000-2001 run), but it would be fun to someday find out what happened to her.

[Finsternis Sonne ☽]

Saga was awesome, can't believe that Brian have done this thing after such great work in Saga.

[Shannon Appelcline]

Silk Cut (10). A wonderful look at Tefe and her other father [8/10].

Red Harvest (11-17). I sort of miss the staccato, brief stories of this first volume, but this is a wonderful coming together of all the plot threads in the entire book. It's got deep thoughts, shocks, and surprises ... and of course more of this wacky road trip [8/10].

Finale (18-20). You could tell things were rushed here, at the end. The sudden disappearance of Heather and the Senator is the most obvious sign, but it's also obvious in the very quick run through the Tree of Knowledge arc. Despite that, the last issue is terrific, as Tefe finally makes her choice [7+/10].

Overall, I think the first volume of Vaughan's Swamp Thing is better than the second. Despite that, this is a terrific volume that doesn't just allude toward Vaughan's future greatness, but is also great all on its own.

[Alex Sarll]

Reading this old apprentice work by Vaughan, I realised part of why Saga was such a leap forward for him: being set in an entirely invented world means he can't drop chunks of undigested research everywhere like he used to. That's not the only problem here; it's hard buying into the overarching 'Will she destroy humanity or plants?' dilemma when it's inevitable the answer's going to be 'Neither'. Less satisfying than the first volume, precisely because it's more about the big plot than horror-of-the-week, though at least the art picks up once Camuncoli comes on board, and you can see his now-familiar style evolving from issue to issue.

[James DeSantis]

I like the idea more than what we got. I think Brian wasn't sure how to make her a good main lead. She questioned a lot of things, and sometimes those questions were good, but a lot of the time it felt empty and the ending is a big...whatever. So sadly this series missed the mark for me.

[Mohammad Aboomar]

I liked how the series started, but man did it take a plunge down under with the save-the-planet nonsense. Covers were still great though.

[Chris Lemmerman]

Tefé remains an insufferable protagonist throughout this volume, and her little friends don't help matters either. She changes her objective on a whim, and just as it looks like something is about to happen, goes off in a completely different direction. The only likeable characters are Agent Killroy and Agent Orange, and the Samurai character. The villains aren't much better, sadistic and horrible for no particular reason.

That said, there are some parts of this volume I did enjoy, such as the final three issues where Tefé seems to learn the error of her ways and get on with her quest, and the appearance of her father Swamp Thing is a highlight of the book. The first issue involving Constantine is also excellent. It's just the main storyline that drags on for a little too long with no real aim to it.

The artwork is pretty solid throughout, I think this is some of Giuseppe Camuncoli's earliest work (correct me if I'm wrong) and you can see shades of the artist he is today in his pencils.

[Rain]

Since the series was cancelled, this volume kind of ends in a wishy washy way, leaving some major plot points unfinished (like Heather and the senator; what the hell happened there??). An interesting concept, but ultimately, needed more of the big green guy.

[Eric]

Man oh man, can Vaughan be preachy and on-the-nose. The man could use a little subtlety sometimes. Glad his run was short on this series.

[Aaron]

An eternal slog of aggravation and missed opportunities. I kept putting this down, believing I had fully given up on it, only to pick it up again in hopes it would redeem itself somehow. It just doesn't. This is truly one of the most frustrating comics I've ever read, made even moreso by the fact that it's written by Vaughan, one of my all-time favorite comics writers.

There's so much potential here! Tefe Holland is a great idea for a lead, struggling with her dual elemental nature, trying to decide if she should side with nature or humanity in the struggle for the planet. But she's just an abysmal character. I hated her by the end of volume 1, and only hated her more as the series wore on. It seems like Vaughan wants her to come across as an indecisive-yet-impulsive teenager, but she really just comes across as a complete nutcase and an asshole. None of her decisions are thought through, the consequences never weighed, and she never takes responsibility for anything. Plus, she's super dangerous, which made me just wish someone would kill her and get it over with.

Then there's the supporting cast, who have extremely "creative writing class" names like "Pilate" and "Barnabas" and "Agent Orange." None of them are ever given any depth or justification for their actions, either. They just kind of do stuff that further frustrates you. There's a plot thread involving a team of USDA agents (including the aforementioned Orange) who are trying to hunt Tefe down, but they don't even know why they're doing it. They decide to hunt her down on a whim, and their quest is never given another ounce of importance or a sense of impending doom or success or anything. They're just driving around, having boring conversations, hoping they miraculously run into Tefe.

There's a lot of that in this series. People just randomly on aimless quests without any direction. The USDA is trying to hunt down Tefe for no discernible reason. Tefe herself is trying to find a mythical Tree of Knowledge but has no idea where to even look for it, so she's just wandering around. Tefe decides she wants to assassinate a Senator because she has a "hunch" that he's a bad dude, based on watching his daughter on TV for 10 seconds. Even that never gets explained or explored. The Senator plot, which builds for several issues, gets very weakly "resolved" and then blown past without ever deciding if Tefe's murder quest was good or bad. The whole series constantly leaves you hanging. It's the comics equivalent of being on hold for an hour and then getting hung up on.

This is one of BKV's earliest series, and luckily he learned from a lot of the mistakes this series makes. He still loves a building mystery and people on quests and such, but now he gives them concrete goals and deeper characterization. And he's genuinely great! But if he'd continued to write like this, I don't think we would've heard about him for very long.

[Nathanael Eoff]

I was pretty disappointed in this short series. Since Alan Moore's run, Swamp Thing has been a complex, layered character, and I assumed Vaughan would do no less given his uncanny ability to write characters that haunt you even years after you finish the work (I'm talking to you Agent 355). Instead, the daughter of Swamp Thing comes off as fairly two dimensional. While the first volume was relatively compelling, it set me up to believe the second volume would add to and enhance the experience. Instead is was a letdown. While I don't read just to get to the end of the story, the end of this story was intensely dumb. I really can't say more. Just a huge letdown.

[Kris Shaw]

Brian K. Vaughn is one of the best writers working in comics today. Kudos to DC for cashing in on his recent success with Saga by finally releasing his run on this title across two books. Vaughn's writing is both political and personal, with his beliefs and convictions channeled through the characters in the story. Think of him as the 21st century version of Steve Gerber or Don McGregor. Pure craft. My only gripe is that the Swamp Thing is a walk on role in only a handful of issues in this series. The real star is his Emo-tinged daughter Tefe. Vaughn is such a good writer that he can make you interested in something that wasn't what you wanted in the first place.

[Patrick]

Well, that journey has come to an end. I can't say it was bad and I can't say it was great. There were some really good points made near the end that may have even been just as powerful with a shorter series run.

Vaughan was kind of long-winded in this series, in my opinion. It was kind of like one of those TV shows you want to quit but amazing scenes or episodes happen just enough to keep you on board.

All in all, the good outweighed the bad, but I feel like this overall story could have been trimmed.

[Tommy]

👏👏👏

Minor complaints, barely worth mentioning...but I'm gonna. Did Romero need to say the N word right before dying? Like, the reader was already supposed to dislike her, I feel that was not needed at that point. Why was Heather so important, as some of the characters mentioned? I understand storywise (helping Tefe connect with a human), but not why the other characters thought so. I may have missed it.Like,

This was GREAT! Will be buying this and the first volume

[Jasper Ballew]

I was disappointed, Brian K. Vaughn completely whiffs the appearances by both John Constantine and Old Moss Head himself. In the context of the overarching story, both of their appearances should have been major sea changes in the progression of Tefe's story, but they end up coming off as more of a "well, that happened" situation.

[Brian Bohmueller]

A solid entry in environmental superheroism. so many well thought out subtle contemplations in finding balance between human and Earth healthiness. The characters and their development are intriguing and the contrivances are leveraged at a believable level. Also, an intriguing vibe of the pre 9/11 mindset, imo.

[Andrew Casarsa]

I really enjoyed these - the story line jumps around a bit so it can be harder to follow and is less polished than his later work like saga but i really love the story, the art, and the characters and their struggle. his interpretation of the green is also very interesting.

[B]

As another reviewer said, it just kind of peters out. I wonder if there was anything more planned.

(You can see some early hints of Saga here with people chasing a mixed-parentage girl all around the country, often in pairs, and the girl picking up party members as she travels.)

[Jim Smith]

An already meandering series ends abruptly and unsatisfyingly given the long build up of the big baddie. Reeks of cancellation. Wasn't that great until then, but mostly okayish. Then it fizzled out so awkwardly I'm left on a downer.

[Duncan]

Fewer than five stars for two reasons: One, the artist has not apparently mastered drawing hair, and two, In a book about Swamp Thing, one expects to regularly SEE Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing's daughter does NOT carry the story well.

[Steph]

This was very existential in terms of the issues/ questions it addressed. This was definitely different from Alan Moore’s version. I doubt I would read it again but it was definitely worth the read.

[Dony Grayman]

Tomo 2 de 2 del Swamp Thing de Vaughan. Recopila los #11-20 y la historia corta de Vertigo Secret Files and Origins: Swamp Thing #1.
Algunos números los tengo repetidos en revistas.

[Joshua Adam Bain]

Brian K. Vaughan can do not wrong. Even when he's not at his best, he's still better than most. Love his characters and the twists his stories take. This was no exception.

[Phoenix]

More like 4.5 stars. This was a good arc with some really complex characters and plot points.

[Bud]

Not the Tefe I wanted to see. I would have had her differently.

[Matty Dub]

BKV is such an absolute edgelord in this series. I regret wasting my time on it, garbage book.

[Patrick Book]

Morality is a thorny topic, my dudes!

[Amethyst]

This was sooo good!!!

[Adam Stone]

This was a giant leap up from the previous volume. Gone are the Millar-style manjokes,