Swamp Thing: Regenesis
It suddenly came to my attention recently that DC had been not only republishing the Alan Moore run on Swamp Thing in trade paperback collections again but they had decided to continue on into the Rick Veitch set of stories. The previous set of collections included the first few Veitch penned items that wrapped up Alan Moore's run and brought Swamp Thing back to Earth but then stopped.
Regenesis is the first of the new stories to be published and is a bit of a bridge, it resolves Abby and Swampie's emotional issues from the previous stories and sets up more explicitly the new story arc about the Sprout - what would have been the new Earth Elemental if Swamp Thing has not returned.
It features frequent cameos from John Constantine, I believe just around the time that Hellblazer was starting, who doesn't really look or sound like the Constantine we know these days. That, combined with the colour art (the UK Alan Moore collections were published in black and white) and the script, give it a very '80's feel. I don't think it is bad as such, but it just feels much more comicy than what you get in Vertigo these days (or even more main stream DC universe fare). You also get appearances from the Fluoronic Man and Solomon Grundy for your money.
There are two further books published so far, still to be read. The last is quite recent, so it remains to be seen whether they will continue all the way to the end of Veitch's run. Comics old-timers will recall that Veitch famously resigned from writing for DC when they refused to publish the climax to the then current storyline which featured Swamp Thing travelling back in time and eventually meeting Jesus.
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