Comics Fondle

Vaughan’s Swamp Thing finale is a cop-out mess. Worst is the last page, which references a famous old Swamp Thing shot, not because the homage is a bad idea, but because Camuncoli is such a terrible artist. Even with Cameron Stewart inking, these are easily the two worst illustrated issues of the series (no wonder Jim Lee had to “re-discover” Camuncoli a few years later).

Given Vaughan’s narration for Tefé’s sidekick and the plot and story in general, it’s amazing the art’s the worst thing about these issues. The narration in these comics might be some of the worst in a comic book… ever. Vaughan uses the narration–in the last issue–to provide a jumping on point for new readers. The whole thing boggles the mind.

The story, Tefé’s conclusion, invalidates itself on the last page, which makes most of the series a reading waste of time.

Lots of Vaughan’s details–his strange guest star, the dumb tribe of 2001 apes–really do inspire discussion and analysis. But there’s no point. Harping on Swamp Thing being a terrible comic is only amusing when it’s not so close to being over and, when I finish this post, it is over. I’ll never read a Vaughan Swamp Thing again and will probably never think about it again.

For a series with such a strong first issue, it’s a stunning failure.

Strangely, Vaughan closes off the last issue talking about Y the Last Man’s imminent arrival. He also makes big reference to Millar’s run on Swamp Thing, which only reminds how awful Vaughan handled the character. Actually, Vaughan’s series might be worse than Diggle’s. Yeah, I think it is worse. Wow. Never thought I’d type that one.

F

Recommend on Mahalo