Review – The Swamp Thing #6
Review – The Swamp Thing #6
Written by Ram V
Art by: Mike Perkins
Colourist Mike Spicer
Letters Aditya Bidikar
Published By DC Comics
Available: 4th August 2021
Variant Cover: Francesco Mattina
IN MY INFANCY
With Prescot’s bio-agent set off in the Kaziranga wetlands, the Green summons Levi back to the land of his making. With Levi unable to access his powers as Swamp Thing, he finds himself trapped in the dense forest and stalked by a group tasked with retrieving his alter ego at all costs. Will he recover his powers before he is hunted down by the Suicide Squad?
Catch up on all the action from the past five issues here
Written by Ram V
I’ve been dreading this issue for about two months the DC marketing machine is polluting its titles with PR to drum up interest in Suicide Squad, The Warner Bros movie, that premiered in the UK on Friday 30th July.
And I was half right, so far the SS seem almost crammed into the storyline, dragging the plot to a grinding halt for a jungle chase through the forests of India. The only plot development happens with flashbacks where we head on a collision course with the shocking truth behind Levi and Prescot as well as the origin of his family’s connection to the green.
Taskforce X makes its big entrance on page one, dropping a bio bomb into the forest just as Levi is regrowing himself after the explosive conclusion of issue 5. He feels something is wrong in the green and uses Holland’s advice from issue 3 to use his memories to strengthen his link to the green. While his mind taps into memories, his body is at the mercy of…Heatwave.
He wastes no time lighting up the shell and Levy reacts by jumping into a lake, again reliving memories of better times with his brother and father. Memories take him back to his youth when he loved the forest and his strongest connection seems to be with a huge tree they used to play on as children.
The two-part ends on a reverse cliffhanger, with the hero, finally rising triumphantly to deal with those that would attack the green.
Artwork: Mikes Perkins and Spicer
Perkins is back from his hiatus and mirroring the MRI scan from a few issues ago we get to see a stunning double-page 32 panel spread showing Swamp Thing regrowing from almost nothing. The visceral images of the eyeball, bloodshot but showing menace as the lid regrows around it is a masterpiece in minimal artwork. Spicer has been very busy between this and the five-issue Beta Ray Bill that I hope you have picked up and read by now. His colouring style intence thick colours surrounded by black expanses pull you into the page.
For the first time though, I’m not impressed by the variant cover from Mattina it seems flat and a bit forced for some reason.
Overall Thoughts
Ram V uses memory to revitalise, showing that we are more when we connect to our strongest memories. He manages to minimise the disruption the PR push for SS does in the issue but next issue I’ll be glad when we cast these aside for more character development from Levi. The two Mikes mix horror with amazingly detailed artwork and colouring. Let’s get this next crossover issue finished and get back to the three remaining issues to close off this amazing story arc.
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