Swamp Thing #11

• Marco Rudy is becoming more than just a fill-in artist, he brings something new to the comic. For example, while Paquette would draw really intricate depictions of horror and gore, Rudy obscures things, leaving the horror up to our imagination. Anton Arcane becomes a chaotic mess of flesh and teeth- as if his body is constantly shifting around.
• Is Alec Holland a redhead now? That would be cool- it would set him apart from the cadre of blonde heroes in The New 52’s “Dark” line. (Seriously; Buddy Baker, John Constantine, even Nelson Jent from Dial H)
• It is good that this is the last issue until Dead World starts. It has been feeling like (in both Animal Man and Swamp Thing) that our heroes were just being swimming around in an amorphous whirlpool of vague eeeeevil.
• The ending is a big tease, but again, the upcoming crossover is looking great.

Earth Two #3

• James Robinson really has a penchant for the dramatic, don’t he? This should come as no surprise to fans of his Starman series or The Shade.
• Robinson continues to play up the subtle differences between this universe and the DCnU. We’ve seen that this universe has Roman gods instead of Greek Gods, Superheroes are called “Wonders”, there is a joint army between the nations of the world, and now we get to see Earth Two’s equivalent of The Green from Swamp Thing, as well as another force that I won’t spoil.
• I don’t know if it is just because of the lighting but Alan Scott has way too much Green in his costume. It was mostly black in the concept art, wasn’t it? That worked.
• This does have a big similarity to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, in that the stakes are a lot higher here. You see this especially at the end, as famous (non-fictional) landmarks are destroyed without so much as a howdy-do.
• I love this universe with it’s very few rag-tag heroes teaming up, as opposed to the cascade of costumed crusaders in the DCnU. Sometimes that can bring you out of a story, like- so what if the Court of Owls kills Batman? Can’t the Justice League just come and wreck them?