Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #1

Jonathan Vankin, Marco Castiello, and Vicenzo Acunzo

"Chapter One:" At the end of Brightest Day, it was revealed that Swamp Thing was the embodiment of all life on Earth. Now back to life, the creature seems to be on a spree of murdering those that harm the environment. Its up to John Constantine to try and find and stop him.
Summary: Before I get started... the cover. John's cigarette smoke trail is the symbol of life. Cigarettes= life? Kinda odd... Also, if you're looking for Superman here, nevermind... he's not in it. That means there's two comics out this week claiming to have Superman and don't. Jumping right in, while investigating a murder, plant life comes to attack John, one of which scratches his hand. The plants then overun the building and the whole place crashes to the ground. Also, John doesn't know what No Smoking means. "Don't smoke here" is the first thing everyone says to him. Cut to Gotham, where Gordon and Batman are looking at the dead body where a tree grew threw the body of a man guilty of dumping waste in the nearby water. As Batman is driving and talking on the vid screen to Alfred, he drops, leading Bruce to shout for his friend. John then appears in the Batmobile to talk to Bruce. However, because he's smoking, batman kicks him out of the car. John explains that he knows who/what's behind this and that Batman should trust him. He doesn't but John teleports the two of them to the swamp, and they are quickly attacked by Swamp Thing, who knocks John out with one punch. He wakes up in Zatanna's apartment and we find out that she and John dated a long time ago. There is an "eskimo brother" moment with John and Bruce, but it ends quickly as we cut to the swamp where Alec Holland, the original host of Swamp Thing is crawling out alive.

High Points: I don't know much about Hellblazer, but I know Batman and I think the interaction here works. Also, it has Chaz, perhaps the best part of Constantine. Art is great here.

Low Points: I was not crazy about the story itself and reading things that are written in a thick English accent is not easy. Not a huge fan of the English... and neither are these guys:

Verdict: B. Its pretty good, but a working knowledge of the featured Vertigo characters would be very helpful.