Hey Sup Forums never read much swamp thing before and everyone tells me he's a great character...

Hey Sup Forums never read much swamp thing before and everyone tells me he's a great character. Where would be good place to start reading swamp thing comics?
It doesn't have to be the original first issue, and looking to just get a couple of graphic novels.
Any help would be appreciated

Like with most titles, you really can’t go wrong starting with the New 52.

Is there a huge change in his backstory for original material?
I only say that cause sometimes new 52 fucks up a character's story a bit

Alan Moore's entire run in order. That's basically all you need.

This guy is fucking with you. Most of the New 52 was garbage.

Bullshit. Almost the entire nu52 is terrible.

Alan Moore's run is the best place to start.

See the post below yours. New 52 did some pretty serious retconning and didn't make any sense in general. That said, it arguably still sucked less than half the rest of the New 52.

Seriously, just read the Alan Moore run IN ORDER.

Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing is the usual recommendation. It is very reflective and fairly dramatic compared to typical cape stuff though.
Nu52 run was great all the way through but much more action oriented and in line with cape comic expectations. It vaguely refers to the SotST run but not so much as to cause much confusion.

Either one is a good place to start depending on what you're looking for, but I would favor Moore's run because MUH HIGH ART.

While not wrong for Swampy, there's a great many titles this is wrong for. Ironically any book that wasn't cancelled prematurely was likely terrible. Nu52 was a strange time.

You want Alan Moore's stuff, Saga of the Swamp Thing. Six books.

OP, Alan Moore's run is one of the best comics ever made. And I normally don't even like Alan Moore's work.

This isn't to say it's perfect, or that every single issue was well-advised, but overall it's pretty fucking impressive.

OP, if you read Alan Moore's run, MAKE SURE YOU GIVE IT AT LEAST 2 ISSUES. The first Moore issue is literally just him going "All that shit the previous writer did? Yeah, we're just gonna ignore that." The second issue is where Moore establishes his new status quo.

Shit guys, Nu52 run was good. Certainly not Moore tier, but still second best Swamp Thing run.

N52 was a time of experimentation. Rebirth by comparison is dull and shit.

It was designed to be a starting point for new readers all across the board. Doesn’t matter what title you want to read, New 52 is the starting point. Sorry if your older knowledge is now obsolete.

fuck you you're why DC was unreadable for 5 years

The most well known run now days is the Alan Moore run which is in the middle of vol2.
The story does pick up where the last writer left off, bit it's all quickly resolved cause Moore wanted to get to his ideas.

You could backtrack before Moore's run for the original run or the vol2 stories before him.
They're not amazing but they're readable/enjoyable; especially the Phantom Stranger stories in my opinion.


The n52 run you CAN pickup and read. It has slight continuity cause it continued where the old52's Brightest Day event left off of Alec Holland being brought back to life.

So the best places to start would be the beginning of it all, the best run with Moore, or the recent run of N52. Those 3 would be your best bets.

ALSO if you decide to start with the story runs before Moore, and enjoy them, there is a bigass omnibus that came out last year with all that bronze age goodness in a single fatass book.

And it completely failed to do that, only making things more confusing instead.

There's a reason why Rebirth obsoleted the New 52, because the New 52 was GARBAGE.

And yet they cancelled everything that was worth reading and kept all the jumbled confusing shit. These people clearly don't know how to run experiments.

I'm still fucking mad over this

You do know that N52 Swamp Thing continued where Brightest Day left off, right?

I mean the user you're replying to is wrong for calling it terrible, bit you're wrong for calling it zero backstory.

Maybe it would help if you tried *hands you a comic book* New 52 was a starting point for new readers, do you automatically hate it when a movie gets rebooted too?

>Sorry if your older knowledge is now obsolete.

Rebirth brought old continuity back and undid the New 52. If you're recommending someone read something "for continuity" the New 52 is the WORST thing you could possible recommend them.

>*hands you a comic book*

OP here, guess I'll get the Alan Moore run then, thanks guys

>*hands you a comic book*

leave

immediately

It obsoleted Nu52 because comic readers hate new things and wanted more of the old. Rebirth was a step backwards, and it upsets me they abandoned everything new to get back to it. I mean fuck look at the clusterfuck of a story they had to just to get back old Supes. They just needed to write the new one better, but no, gotta have some dumbass convoluted event where supes splits then fuses and dimension hops and all kinds of shit to get back THE ONE TRUE SUPES.

Fucking comic fans are their own worst enemies.

My understanding was that Rebirth kept the New 52 continuity intact with the exception of Superman where they merged the New 52 and Post-Crisis Supermen into one being that respected elements from both of their stories? Other elements like Wally West were brought back into canon, but for the most part, I thought the New 52 was still the foundation for Rebirth?

>*hands you a comic book*

>>>/reddit/

What is it about and why is it so good?

Tell me why YOU think it's good. I don't need to hear you just parrot common opinion that it's a must read.

...

8/10
I can't tell if you're being legit or not.

Nice argument man.

or maybe it was just shit

The New 52 "still happened", but now it's just Doctor Manhattan being a dick and fucking with shit. It's no longer a "new universe" like it was originally intended to be. It isn't a "reboot" anymore.

>What is this faggot doing , jpg? Getting trips while being right, is what.

With all the big name heroes they never actually erased the history (properly) so you can really treat Rebirth as a cleanup of all the fuckups they made during Nu52 and a continuation of everything that came before. The actual new stuff that got totally revamped for Nu52 was all cancelled so they can safely just ignore it. They're basically band-aiding over the new 52, saying it still "technically" happened but was blue space dong's fault all along! You know, typical cape comic shit.

Alan Moore so at peak performance. Narration heavy if that's a turn off (which for me isn't) but plenty of wild ideas with such a well written focus you really get into the stories. Horror comics that'll actually have you feeling unease or even scared.

Not to mention Moore introduced a bunch to the SwampThing lore, including one of the greatest twists where Swamp Thing is changed from Alec Holland that was changed into a monster but a monster that had Alec's memories imprinted on it. Completely flipping the character from a man who saw himself a monster to a monster who saw himself a man . This twist is hardly a spoiler though since the Moore run is so well loved that all runs after him continue from his so they use his ideas to solid continuity.

It's rare to see a run that isn't the original run to be the definitive run.

Were they're any stories that weren't complete fuck ups from nu52?

>It is very reflective and fairly dramatic compared to typical cape stuff though
It's actually well written. Like not by the typically lowered standards of comic schlock, but actual, proper literature.

I can't speak for the other anons, but I picked it up up because I was curious, and had never read anything about the swamp-thing before. I knew nothing about him, his backstory - zilch.

I found myself re-reading that first volume over and over, getting really interested in his plight, the world around him and deeply enjoyed seeing the villains he fought. By the time I bought the second volume, I had read about his backstory and managed to track down some older comics with his origin. Saga of the Swamp thing is one of those things I can just pick up, read and never really lose the magic of the first-time reading. The art is great, characters are written well and interesting - and on a second note, it did introduce Constantine, which I coincidentally feel very much the same about.

I can't tell why in full why I love it so much, because that would risk spoiling you. but it is a very good read.

>Hating on Convergence
I'll fight you.

Demon Knights
Animal Man
Swamp Thing
Wonder Woman
Early Deathstroke
Aquaman
Frankenstein Agent of Shade
I Vampire
Sinestro
Early Justice League 3000
Martian Manhunter
Amethyst
Early Action Comics unless you hate Morrison then it's shit
Early Flash (But really only for the art)
Debatably Red Hood and the Outlaws (Rebirth run is still better tho)
Forever Evil

That was a really good book.

*Reads comic*
Oh wow it's fucking terrible.
Swamp thing was one of the few good books of the nu52 yes but to say the nu52 was mostly good is Insane.

You are right about supes. They should have just started writing his better.
You are wrong about everything else.
Sup Forums often praises some of the more unusual stuff from the nu52. It's the straight capeshit that suffered the worst.

Also I've heard praise for Dial H for Hero, though I never read it myself. Like most good books in Nu52, it was cancelled early on because readers preferred reading shitty batman books to trying anything different.
That said, Batwing was at the very least interesting until they dumped David/Africa and went back to Gotham. I've also hear divisive opinions about the Court of Owls plot. Talon was also not offensively bad but not exceptional; just rather mediocre. Grayson was pretty good, started at the ass end of N52.

Oh yeah, Jonah Hex was another good book.

Snyder’s run on Batman most certainly happened, as did the Green Lantern stuff, Suicide Squad stuff etc. The canon of those runs is still being built on as one continuous story. We’ve still got red-haired Gordon.

Rebirth reintroduced SOME pre-Flashpoint elements, but not as many as you’d like. Lex was still never President, the stuff with Chris Kent never happened, nor did any of the Crisis events, AzzBats etc.

Assume for a moment that you had somebody with zero knowledge of DC characters -you never told them about reboots and they had no cultural knowledge of the characters from TV or movies whatsoever. You just give them a pile of books to read -every title from New 52 right up to present day Rebirth. I’d argue that their reading experience of the events is pretty continuous.

Now imagine that instead, you had them read every single book post-COIE and when you get to Flashpoint, you skip the entirety of the New 52 and just start them on the Rebirth titles like nothing happened. There is quite clearly a huge missing chapter of those character’s lives and the two pieces of the ongoing story don’t line up nicely at all -Lex no longer having been President, etc.

>Debatably Red Hood and the Outlaws
Did it completely change after the first issue? I read the first issue of every nu52 launch title and that was easily the worst by a massive margin. I guess you did say debatably.
Your list is otherwise pretty good.

Sup Forums praised all the good shit and bashed the crap, but the crap still sold better and all the good shit got cancelled. The capeshit was the worst part of N52 and its what endured the longest. I don't understand this customer base.

It did pick up imo. Then it dipped, and picked back up again, etc. The characterizations bounced between great and terrible and the plot was kinda stupid but tolerable. It was a wonky ride and I got off before the end anyway, but it had it's moments.

>*reads comic*

What the fuck?

That's because a bunch of characters, such as Lex, are still their alternate dimension selves. Once they beat up blue dong it'll all be fixed

I rather enjoyed Supergirl, though it kinda turned into abuse porn near the end

DC is more unreadable now that it ever was. Rebirth was a mistake. At least rebirth gave us good comics. Rebirth is just reddit tier comics.

And what, Chris Kent will go back to being Clark’s adopted son? Jon will cease to exist? The various Crisis events and all their complications will become canon again? Shazam will go back to being called Captain Marvel?

That comic wasn't all that experimental and it lived long enough. The writer also quit so DC didn't let it live longer. Blame Cornell for trying to out a power play and pissing about his career.

You must realize Jon won't last, and they will bring back in some surprise reveal to boost sales somewhere down the line, only to make him disappear again, then maybe bring Jon back for shits and giggles too. This is comics, no change is allowed to be permanent.

Shazam is Shazam forever though.

Honestly, I was trolling, normally I wouldn’t do it in a thread like this, but for some reason felt compelled to today. Thanks for the 8/10

>DC is more unreadable now that it ever was
This. Worst period ever for DC in terms of quality.

>Sorry if your older knowledge is now obsolete.

Nobody under 250 pounds gives a shit about continuity you utter capefucker, OP is asking about good comics.

If your stories are so good, why didn’t they stay in continuity?

The weight of the narrative bloat of dozens of other continuities forced the reboot just to keep writers and fans sane. Moore Thing was just collateral damage, same thing with Animal Man and Hellblazer.

It’s kind of like Star Wars where fans have the Disney continuity or Legends continuity to choose from. Neither one is necessarily “better”, even though one is recognized by the parent company as the definitive story.

EDIT: to go back to OP, Alan Moore’s stuff is considered to be the best Swamp Thing, even if Vertigo is the “Legends” continuity of DC now.

But Moore Swampy is still canon

I'll have you know, sir, that I am a slim 245lbs!

Nu52 Snyder’s run was trash, but Charles Soule turned it into gold for about 15 issues or so. His story dragged once all the machine world shit was introduced

Yes to Alan Moore. Brian K Vaughn’s run is mediocre Vertigo sludge. I am fond of the original Len Wein stories but the stuff he released a couple years ago was bad.

Len Wein 70s: EC horror style, a little campy
Alan Moore: beautiful sprawling epic
Vaughn: boring
Snyder: retarded
Soule: horror elements are pretty much gone but the Swampy antics are fun
Wein 2016/17: just mediocre camp with too many guest stars.

I guess it's kind of related, but what about Man-Thing? The most recent mini by RL Stine was absolute garbage, but I've heard he's almost as beloved as Swamp Thing.

>Shitting on Snyder's run
Jeez, I know it sputtered out near the end like everything Snyder writes but it was far from crap. It really got the red/green/rot trinity going and had some good Abby/Holland moments

And it had fucking Paquette on art holy shit. The paneling alone makes it worth it.

I mean just look at it.

He’s good in post-Ellis Thunderbolts and had a great mini-series a few years back, The Infernal Man-Thing. Apparently his 80s stuff is decent, Infernal was considered a sequel to 80s story Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man which I’ve never read.

Infernal was so bizarre. Man-Thing never speaks either so he’s very different from Swamp Thing. He kind of just bumbles around and gets caught up in other peoples’ stories.

Yes the art was great but the rot/red/green crossover was awful. Animal Man was actually readable. Swamp Thing, while pretty, was not.

It was all hinged on Alec, Abby, and Arcane and no one was actually interesting.

ANYTHING WRITTEN BY STEVE GERBER

AND NOTHING ELSE

Volume 2 isn't BAD per se, but it ain't better than average-ish either. Just read all the Gerber shit. Literally that's ALL you need.

I would disagree. Alec's conflict with being the not so new swamp thing and his perpetually doomed romance with Abby was interesting, and Arcane was as much of a shit eating asshole as he ever was. It's no Moore, but it's not garbage. Better than Wein's run anyway.

Alan Moore

>Shazam will go back to being called Captain Marvel?
He already is on most earth's isn't he

There's a DeMatteis run that was great but it got canceled. Gerber was kinda cool but the run was too long and it's very uneven, Wein Swampy is better.

Read it and find out, asshole. You don't want us to parrot common opinion, you just want us to tell you what to think about it before you read it. What a tremendous difference.

Jon is going to last just as long as Damian. You’re naive to think otherwise considering how well received he is

Don't do that
Never do that

Big 2 fanbase is mainly character fags.
Never underestimate a character fag's autism.

>There's a DeMatteis run that was great but it got canceled.

Seriously? Recommending Man-Thing v3?

>*hands you a comic book*
never do that again