Future State: Swamp Thing #1 Review

A Little Swampy

Written By: Ram V
Art By: Mike Perkins
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 5, 2021

If you haven't read the final issue of Death Metal, as I haven't yet, then you really don't have to for this particular book. It sums it up quite nicely about why we're seeing different futures in different times and timelines in Future State without spoiling what actually happened. The future for this timeline with Swamp Thing? Mankind just seemingly vanished after the heroes did what they did, cities are desolate and crumbling, and Swamp Thing is roaming the Earth looking for any survivors. But he's not alone.

Swamp Thing has created pretty much a tribe of Swamp Things, although they don't seem to have the Green powers that he does. They are humanoid, cognitive plants. Throughout the issue we see how he made them, including their organs so they would function and think like a human. It appears like the first one that he made was Heather, but the indigo colored Indigo looks much older and even says at one point how he's getting old.

We have no idea how far into the future this is, but they are living on top of the Statue of Liberty right now, as it's covered in plant life, just as it appears on the cover. Swamp Thing is retelling the tale of what happened to this world to his latest creation, a girl named Calla. It's here that we get our little history lesson that doesn't give away too much. It also doesn't paint humans in a very good picture at all, saying that they perfected violence and threatened the world with it. And yet, Swamp Thing knows there are still humans somewhere out there, and they've been looking for them for years. Then Indigo pops up and dares him to tell Calla the truth and why he cares about the humans. Indigo is a jerk and he ends up getting a little physical force put on him from Swamp Thing.

Suddenly there's a fire in the city, right where the other members of there group were, so they hustle down there and this is where we meet the rest of the group. Apparently some machines were still operational in the building and when Vruk caused them set on fire. We see that Heather is the brave one of the gang as she's been rescuing them and going back in for more. She's able to get out with the last member just as the building explodes. When the building crumbles down, Swamp Thing turns big and protects everybody from the rubble.

Later that night, Swamp Things speaks to the trees. The Lorax doesn't show up to speak for the trees, but he can hear them anyways. They tell them that humans were spotted way up north not long ago, so the next day that's where they head. Next thing we know they're in the snow-covered woods, and they find one of the group members disemboweled.

Not that far away the group finds their human hiding in a cave and confront him before Swamp Thing arrives. These, uh, swamp-beings don't actually speak English so they have no idea what this human is saying. He can't even hear them because of the way they communicate with each other. Heather, who is still raging from the death of her friend, attacks him. But Swamp Thing shows up and stops her. He tells them to leave so he can talk to the human, so they do. Of course Indigo has to be a jerk and say Heather is jealous of the human because he's going to get more attention than she is, so she punches his jaw clean off! Damn!

Swamp Thing sits down with the human, whose name is Venen, and asks him if there's more humans...

Bits and Pieces

Despite being slow at points and the storytelling being a little shaky, this was an okay issue that the more I think about the concept of it the more I like it. You get a solid idea of who the members of this new family are (at least the three important ones) and I like them. And I like the existence of them. Swamp Thing is human under all that, and we need that sense of community or we'll go crazy. Without humans, despite his dislike of them, he's still lonely. Speaking of humans, what our boy Venen has to say at the very end makes me interested in seeing where this is going. But overall? The issue is okay.

6.7/10