Review: Swamp Thing #8

Week after week I ponder how to try and describe how great this book is. I have used the words brutal, chaotic, visceral and gut wrenching, but none of them can truly describe the achievements that Scott Snyder, Yanick Paquette and Marco Rudy have accomplished with this issue.

Issue eight is something special all to itself. It is the culmination of all that has come before it, and a turning point that pushes the series into what it will become. It is a gestation of ideas and a birth of one of the greatest under used characters in comics. It is the revival and reveal of this generations Avatar of the Green, the pure unbridled fury of nature itself — Swamp Thing!

Alec Holland finally transcends past his mere mortal status, becoming one with the Green in order to save his true love — Abigail Arcane. But Abby has been evolving as well and Alec’s plight to save her, may undo the fabric of nature itself! The Rot is in us all, slumbering on the fringe of consciousness, but some of us welcome it’s horrific siren call, devolving into pure chaos. What happens when a blind love becomes an Achilles’ heel? Especially, when it gives the Rot the a chance at a killing blow!

I have prayed on bended knee in the House of Snyder numerous times before, thanking him for all his diabolical mastery. Today, I will preach about the cunning artistic skills of Yanick Paquette and Marco Rudy. The pure Hell they can conjure on a page is astounding, any nightmare you have ever conceived doesn’t hold a candle to what they create! It is horrific and confounding, a tireless effort to break the minds of the reader and mold it to their own vision. If you can read a single issue of Swamp Thing and not cringe at least once — you are dead inside! From the majesty of Swamp Thing to the horrendously toothy Sethe, Paquette and Rudy are creating a masterpiece of the macabre that will leave you questioning your sanity!

If you have not been reading this book, I actually feel sad for you, but there is a chance at redemption! The trade will be out in May, and you can savor all the hellish brilliance over and over again! So get this book, read it now or store it away until May, either way you owe it to yourself to read something that challenges the boundaries of what great comics can be!