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Is It Good? Swamp Thing Annual #3 Review

Comic Books

Is It Good? Swamp Thing Annual #3 Review

It’s that time again: some DC annuals are here, including Swamp Thing Annual #3. Every annual in the series has been completely and utterly enjoyable in its own way. Can this issue deliver the same? Is it good?


Swamp Thing Annual #3 (DC Comics)


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After a demon attack, Capucine has fallen ill and collapsed. Swamp Thing brings her back to his home to try to have her rest and recover, but this may not be something she can recover from. It’s been over a thousand years since she has been given her immortal powers and now, her time is up. She’s going to die and there may be nothing Swamp Thing can do for her…

swamp-thing-annual-3-constantine
Prepare your eyes for incoming amount of precipitation.

And so this brings us to the end to the Capucine storyline that has been building in the background for quite a while now. It’s been a long road and the results are… rather depressing to say the least. I can’t tell you how this all ends (you can probably guess it, but it would be better to read it), but the ending and entirety of the issue is incredibly strong and probably one of the heavier books I had to read this month. The story, in simple terms, is fantastic, tragic, but beautiful as well. It’s a good ending for this storyline and it makes me quite curious to see how the rest of the series will go.

The writing is of course excellent and really makes this book shine. All of the characterization is great and fits everyone just perfectly, even our special appearance from a certain demon. The characterization and development are especially good with how it even pulled some twists and different perspectives on some of the characters that I thought were rather surprising and well handled. The dialogue and narration were very strong and engaging, really bringing the characters and emotions to life. Speaking of which, the emotional aspect was handled very well and you could really feel how the characters felt during these scenes. There was only one minor hiccup honestly to me with the story and that was one line of dialogue that really felt like it came out of nowhere in the end of the book. It doesn’t ruin anything mind you, but it felt odd since there wasn’t any real build up for it.

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D’aww. It’s so strangely adorable and funny. Thanks; I really needed that.

The artwork is done by five different artists surprisingly enough. Javier Pina and Carmen Carnero draw the majority of the book that’s set in the present while Ryan Browne, Dave Bullock, and Yanick Paquette draw some special pages that act as flashbacks or otherwise out of the current timeline. While five artists on a book could have been problematic, the comic does a great job of utilizing everyone and putting them in the book in ways that won’t interrupt the flow of the story (in other words, a scene set in the present or happening in the same room won’t randomly switch artists). Heck, even with Pina and Carnero drawing the same part of the book at the present, you couldn’t even notice when they switch artists.

All of the artwork on the book is amazing from start to finish even beyond that stuff. The characters are drawn excellently, with some creativity and designs used in areas. The layouts are strong and flow well, especially in some of the double page spreads. The action is intense and impressive to look at, while the coloring really just brings everything to life so well. The artwork is also really good at bringing out the strong emotions and mood in the book, helping make everything so effective on that emotional level. This is easily one of the best looking issues of the series to date, even beyond just the writing.

Is It Good?

Swamp Thing Annual #3 is, without a doubt, one of the best issues of this series to date. Just about everything went right with the book. The ending to this storyline, the characters and emotions, the writing, the beautiful artwork… it just all came together into a magnificent finale. Fans of the book, you’ll come away just loving this… or even being rather sad in a good way. It’s one or the other.

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