Swamp Thing #9

"Broken Bones"
written by Scott Snyder
art by Yanick Paquette (pp. 1-8) and Marco Rudy (pp. 9-20)

Boasting.  The unrelenting habit of villains and heroes alike to brag about their power, their superiority, and their plans.  "Broken Bones" has a lot of fight-talking.

Seethe, ruler of the Rot, is arrogant and cocksure, entirely convinced of the inevitability of his victory.  No doubt, his pride is elemental to his characterization.  There's very little sly about the Rot.  Beyond a few early ploys to cripple its enemies—the assault on the Parliament of Trees by an infected Amazon explorer and the infection accelerated by Maxine's interference in Animal Man—Seethe's strategy has been unflaggingly straightforward.  Using brute strength to construct a stronghold in the desert and amass an army of corpses, the Rot will simply suffocate all life.

Seethe also enjoys gloating.  It is not enough to metamorphose Abby into a skeletal insect queen for the Rot, and it is not enough to dispatch the Swamp Thing, champion of the Green, with little mess or delay.  Seethe enjoys the irony of inviting a newly transformed Abby to kill her former lover as he tries to save her.  Because he is so convinced of his victory, Seethe can imagine no alternative outcome.  This is his mistake.  He underestimates their affection for each other and their defiance of those—himself and the Parliament—who would force them into anything else.

Alec's solution is elegantly simple:  he sweetened her canned peaches with orchid seeds.  When needed, he grew them out of her, breaking the Rot's control over her.  But as always, Paquette and Rudy deliver an alternately beautiful and bleak vision of a mediocre script with a strong story. 

[July 2012]