Swamp Thing: The Becoming by Eric S Brown

Swamp Thing: The Becoming
Eric S Brown

Alec Holland is no longer the Swamp Thing of the DC Universe but the Green still needs a hero.  Reaching into the world of man, the Green has chosen Levi Kamei to be its new avatar and protector.  Like Alec Holland before him, Levi is a man of science.  Swamp Thing: The Becoming is the tale of his origin story and the set up for a longer running plot arc to come in the series. 

The first villian Levi encounters as the Swamp Thing is an entity that could very well be an avatar of the Rot, though that is never directly confirmed.  It’s a creature known as the Pale Wanderer which has roamed the Sonoran desert for over a hundred and fifty years.  The collected issues that deal with this are nothing short of awesome.  They have the feel of the Alan Moore run on Swamp Thing and are packed with not only instense action scenes as Levi and the Pale Wanderer do battle but also the horrors and wonders Levi experiences in becoming the Green’s new avatar.  The art is more than up to the task of adding to the story elements and well done. 

The last two issues in the trade though are of much less quality.  They drop everything that was being set up and jump into the DC’s Future State event.  Not only is simply a weird punch to the reader’s brain but the writing just don’t live up.  These last two issues feel stale and cliché’ while also leaving everything from the first half of the trade unresolved and forgotten about.

All in all, Levi Kamei is a worthy successor to Alec Holland with hopefully many great adventures ahead of him but at a cover price of $17 it is questionable if this book is truly worth picking up. 

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