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Swamp Thing (2004)
Swamp Thing, Vol. 2: Love in Vain
Though he once wielded the combined power of all the Eearth's elemental forces, the creature known as Swamp Thing has renounced his omnipotence and returned to his original status as the avatar of the Green.
144 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Dysart
389 books95 followersI write comic books, graphic novels and novels. I'm a three time Eisner nominee, two time Glyph award winner, New York Times bestseller, a recipient of The Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year award, and have been in competition twice at Angoulême.
I've worked on Hellboy, Swamp Thing, & Conan the Barbarian; I co-wrote a graphic novel with Neil Young; I helped restart Valiant Entertainment; and I've done on-the-ground research in Uganda (2007), Iraq (2014), & South Sudan (2016), writting graphic novels about war and famine in those regions.
Goodnight Paradise came out in 2018 with long time co-creator Alberto Ponticelli and is a murder mystery set in the houseless population of Venice Beach, Ca.
My first novel (novella - it's only 100 pages) has dropped. It combines my love of slasher horror, Agatha Christie fair-play mysteries, construction sites, and bugs. It's called BROOD X. Buy it wherever trash genre books are sold!
I've worked on Hellboy, Swamp Thing, & Conan the Barbarian; I co-wrote a graphic novel with Neil Young; I helped restart Valiant Entertainment; and I've done on-the-ground research in Uganda (2007), Iraq (2014), & South Sudan (2016), writting graphic novels about war and famine in those regions.
Goodnight Paradise came out in 2018 with long time co-creator Alberto Ponticelli and is a murder mystery set in the houseless population of Venice Beach, Ca.
My first novel (novella - it's only 100 pages) has dropped. It combines my love of slasher horror, Agatha Christie fair-play mysteries, construction sites, and bugs. It's called BROOD X. Buy it wherever trash genre books are sold!
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 20, 2015
The second volume of the Third Swamp Thing run skips over a few issues and settles on author Joshua Dysart's first issue to start this collection. Dysart had a good book over on the updated Unknown Soldier, which takes place in a war-ravaged African nation, so I had high hopes here. No such luck.
There are two stories here. The first deals with the return of Anton Arcane to plague the newly "reborn" Swamp Thing. A woman in the swamps of Louisiana knows some juju and conjures up a man to make her feel complete. This golem of a man is possessed by the spirit of Arcane, who overpowers the juju woman and helps a female demon take over the dead body of the juju woman's mother. Grossness ensues. Along the way, Swampy's daughter Tefe takes some wild mushrooms, and ends up in the hospital, spewing blood, and Arcane makes his way to her in order to giver her body to the female demon. Swamp Thing shows up, along with a bizarre creature called The Worm, and they end up making short order of Arcane, sending him back to hell.
The second story is about Abigail's current boyfriend, Jake, a musician, and his father, who was a wife beater and who seeks redemption with a preacher man in the swamps. The father disappears for a week and Jake convinces Abigail to seek out Swamp Think in order to find him. Turns out the preacher is an alien vampire of some sort, who thrives off of the energies of his followers. Poor guy is just trying to get back home, so cut him some slack, ok? Anyway, Jake's dad is found, but the alien takes off with what looks to be a hundred people or so, and that's that.
The primary problem for me in this book is that the writers and artists are simply aping the classic Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, and John Totleben run. The art, in particular, is pretty good, but it's more of the creepy, rotted corpses, and supernatural, demonic beings that look like giant insects. Nope, never seen that before. There's blood and maggots and gore, and scores of people die in the city that seems always to be the focal point of Swamp Thing's Louisiana ventures. The story is redundant, as well, and has the requisite curse words, betrayals (when will demons learn not to trust one another?), swamp people, and innocents-who-set-evil-things-into-motion. Swampy is once again confused, fighting with his ties to humanity, and it's all just the same thing wrapped up in a pretty Vertigo package this time.
One of the things that bothered me the most was the written dialect of the juju woman. "Ahm a'tahlkin' lahk thees." Seriously? She has an accent/dialect that is so unusual that it has to be phonetically spelled, and no one else in Houma, LA, does? Just annoying, because sometimes a second reading is required to figure out what she's trying to say.
The second story does have some good art by Timothy Green II, who won some kind of up and coming artist award. His faces vary from one scene to the next, but he has a nice eye for detail without hitting the reader over the head with it.
There's one more volume in this run and I'll read it. Not looking forward to it.
March 11, 2025
Dysart pushes the horror envelope but somehow misses his characters. SW is a bunch of moss and twigs and a bit of a twit, Abby and Tefe seem out of their depth and Arcane bores the reader with his long, pedantic sentences.
There are the seeds of something above the rest, but the nebulous treatment of the main plot took me away from the story.
There are the seeds of something above the rest, but the nebulous treatment of the main plot took me away from the story.
September 8, 2023
2.5 stars.
Far too busy and dramatically unfocused. Salvaged by sublime cosmic horror imagery and the return of Anton Arcane -- who now has a girlfriend he fucks.
Far too busy and dramatically unfocused. Salvaged by sublime cosmic horror imagery and the return of Anton Arcane -- who now has a girlfriend he fucks.
October 10, 2010
The art and writing merge to create one of the more gory and disturbing ST stories ever committed to print. Features a great return of a classic villain. The last chapter is a standalone piece, but is equally disturbing in its message. The last page haunts.
March 13, 2013
I've never read a Swamp Thing comic before. I really really wanted to like it, because I love the idea of Swamp Thing, but I found the art lacking and the story a bit rushed and confusing. I'll have to try some of Moore's Swamp Thing. I've heard good things about it.
July 2, 2014
I believe I am coming to love Swamp Thing, this one is a much better one than the one I own (Library book). Swamp Thing has more depth it seems, it's not just a monster-horror comic. There's magic, grizzly and often gory art work, but at the same time it has heart.
February 13, 2011
A worthy successor to Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. Highly enjoyable.
May 13, 2022
Strong writing mucky plot. I really like Joshua Dysart's writing, but this storylines aren't as epic as Moore's, Veitch's, Morrison/Millar and Diggle's run.
To me, it's more akin to Ann Nocenti's run. A little more subdued, more focus on horror (and sometimes body horror). More a focus on bayou culture, etc.
To me, it's more akin to Ann Nocenti's run. A little more subdued, more focus on horror (and sometimes body horror). More a focus on bayou culture, etc.
May 8, 2025
stuff involving arcane is always so confusing. it was easier to understand as I kept going though.
September 9, 2015
Love in Vain (9-12). So this is the new Swamp Thing status quo. Swampy is mucky, but still has some powers of the Green. Tefe is powerless, but still rebellious and fun. Abby has moved on. Unfortunately, I don't think you could have a more stereotypical Swamp Thing comic. I mean, the whole Abby-has-moved on alone has been done way too many times, but the main plot of Arcane returned and on the run from Hell feels like every other Arcane story either.
It's a pity, because the writing is sharp, and there's some nice irony and some nice tragedy. It just all feels very done before, not new at all [6/10].
A Measure of Faith (13-14). This is another story that feels nicely dark and spooky and which touches upon the new characters of the comic, but which doesn't break a lot of new ground. It does have a few nice bits right at the end though. [6/10]
Overall, I like Swamp Thing's return to form in dark horror, but it needs more originality than is shown in this first Dysart volume to really shine.
It's a pity, because the writing is sharp, and there's some nice irony and some nice tragedy. It just all feels very done before, not new at all [6/10].
A Measure of Faith (13-14). This is another story that feels nicely dark and spooky and which touches upon the new characters of the comic, but which doesn't break a lot of new ground. It does have a few nice bits right at the end though. [6/10]
Overall, I like Swamp Thing's return to form in dark horror, but it needs more originality than is shown in this first Dysart volume to really shine.
March 16, 2013
definitely stronger than the first volume in terms of plot, but still rather convoluted and i don't like what dysart has done with abby and tefe for the most part. but anton arcane and the legions of hell are back and that always makes for some seriously gruesome and disturbing reading.
some might flinch at antone and josephine (the stuff of nightmares), but maybe i've just grown immune to it. i was more put off by some lousy artwork. the demons and creatures are all rendered wonderfully, but the real people are awful ~ the women in particular. that's a pretty bad minus when half your major cast is female.
still, i give it three stars because it was compelling enough and a definite return to swamp thing's horror roots.
some might flinch at antone and josephine (the stuff of nightmares), but maybe i've just grown immune to it. i was more put off by some lousy artwork. the demons and creatures are all rendered wonderfully, but the real people are awful ~ the women in particular. that's a pretty bad minus when half your major cast is female.
still, i give it three stars because it was compelling enough and a definite return to swamp thing's horror roots.
Want to read
September 21, 2015Segundo tomo del Swamp Thing de Breccia
April 15, 2019
Tomo 2, recopila los números 9 a 14.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews