Wein, however, breaks that habit with very deliberately plain dialogue pattern - very human in fact - in the style of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Monster. I’m not even sure that tenor of voice was even present in the last run, stretching out of the launch of the New 52, except where I put it in with the voiceover in my head. It is a bit of an adjustment to experience a far less regal-sounding Swamp Thing, an expectation that seems forever ingrained in me after a lifetime of reading Alan Moore and Mark Millar’s runs on the monster of Houma, Louisiana. Len Wein returns to the character he co-created with Bernie Wrightson and not only delivers a Swamp Thing that is so diametrically opposed to Snyder and Soule’s (without directly contradicting, mind you), but recaptures the feeling of the original House of Mystery-style storytelling the man-monster originally grew out of. It is with the deepest sense of pleasure that I can say DC Comics found the best way out of that logjam. Scott Snyder and Charles Soule both left significant marks on the man known as Alec Holland, so returning to their well could only spark unfair comparisons. Starting a new series with a new creative team, especially when the last run was so distinctive (and critically acclaimed) is always tough.

But can a man of the Green be enough to conquer death itself?

There’s another creature afoot, and it’s up to Alec Holland, the undead Swamp Thing, to stop him. The Swamp Thing returns to his roots… literally, as original creator Len Wein partners with artist Kelley Jones to deliver a new tale of horror in the bayou.

Swamp Thing by Len Wein