Written by Charles Soule
Art by Jesus Saiz
Published by DC Comics
At the end of issue #25, the Parliament of the Green decided that the Seeder was better suited to take up the mantle of Avatar than Alec Holland. Needless to say this didn’t leave Alec in the best shape at the end of the issue. With issue #26, Alec has taken his place among the Parliament, just like all former Avatars do, and he’s forced to sit back and watch The Seeder take on the role that he was forced out of. The Seeder, on the other hand, loves the fact he has reigned triumphant over the Swamp Thing. He’s now on a mission to show the Parliament they made the right choice in selecting him as the new Avatar. What’s the only way to do that? Well by challenging the Avatar of the Red, aka Animal Man, of course!
Charles Soule has been stellar on this series since he took over, and I’m happy to say this issue is no different. He chose to tell his story quite differently though. It’s still told mostly from Alec’s perspective like always, but now that he’s a part of the Parliament and not the Avatar, it’s told from a passive point of view. While it works really well while we watch the new Swamp Thing get utterly embarrassed by Buddy Baker, I felt a little disconnected from the story in the places that flashed back to Seeder’s origin story; that’s a slight nitpick of mine, but as a whole I’ve really loved this arc. I just hope that Soule doesn’t plan on leaving Alec out of the picture. Ever since I started reading comics again, Alec Holland/Swamp Thing has been one of my absolute favorite characters. While Seeder sees himself as entitled to do what he wants, when he wants; Alec feels a sense of moral responsibility not only to the Green, but to himself. It’s really great to see that balance in full effect in this issue since we see Seeder’s point of view for the first time.
The art, as always, is absolutely top-notch in this issue. We see a lot of flashback panels of Seeder’s origin story here, but we also get a nice action sequence as Buddy Baker wipes the floor with the new Avatar of the Green. If the art in every book could capture the essence and tone of the universe like the art in Swamp Thing has, the world of comics would be a perfect place.
It looks like we’re nearing a jump-on point for those of you who still aren’t reading this series. (Even though I’ve told you guys tons of times that you should be!) I really hope that Soule plans to stay on even though he’s undertaking two new titles for All-New Marvel Now, because I’m afraid that whoever takes it over from him won’t do the character I’ve grown to love so much justice. While this wasn’t my favorite issue of Soule’s run, it gave us a great back story to an amazing villain and that makes the slower pace of the issue totally worth it for me.
4 out of 5 nerds
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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