Swamp Thing vol. 2: Family Tree

Now I liked the first volume of this latest take on the character well enough, but something just felt off here.  Maybe it’s because writer Scott Snyder burns through the conflict in the four issues from the title proper in a way that doesn’t allow the events contained inside to resonate.  Yes, there are some nice moments such as the glimpses of the creepiness across the country that open the volume, seeing what has become of Abby in the time since she was captured by Sethe’s agents of the Rot, her early meeting with Alec, and Arcane’s many “fleshy guises.”  It also boasts some impressive art from Yanick Paquette and Marco Rudy, whose styles mesh better here and continue to show off plenty of imaginatively designed pages.  Francesco Francavilla also contributes an appropriately creepy issue, Kano gives us an occasionally disturbing look at Arcane’s history, and Becky Coonan really sells the “love at first sight” meeting of Alec and Abby.

All of the parts were here, but they don’t quite come together.  After being built up as a major antagonist in the previous volume, Sethe is easily dispatched in less than an issue.  Though Arcane has plenty of “hateable” moments to get the reader to root for his demise, he remains a one-dimensional evil-for-the-sake-of-evil villain throughout this volume.  Yes, the Rot is bad and he’s a devoted servant of it, but we never learn what turned him towards it or what keeps him going to this day.  “Family Tree” also suffers from some of the same story placement problems as “Batman:  The City of Owls” did.  Though the main story reaches a climax with the entrance of another superhero on the scene yet the volume continues on with two additional stories that, while nice, don’t really advance the story much at all.  They also put a damper on the story’s momentum heading into the “Rotworld” crossover that makes me less excited for it, but still willing to pick up the next collection when it arrives.