Soule moves Swamp Thing away from traditional horror to something more along the lines of traditional fantasy. A welcome change after Snyder's gothic romance. Here Swamp Thing is preparing to confront Seeder, a reimagining of Floronic Man, who wants to take his place as the Avatar of the Green. To do this, he visits the Parliment of Trees for training and THAT'S where this book gets interesting.

In the previous volume, each time Swamp Thing would spawn in a new area, he'd grow to his normal size but incorporate the local plant life into his new body. Now in the green, we Javier Pina draw different Avatars and members of Parliment (like a trilobite and a freaking T-Rex just to name a few) and they're all brilliantly creative. Pina might be my favorite Swamp Thing artist. He draws a wonderfully crisp Alec Holland and the way he incorporates different plants and fruits into the character designs to hint at their personality and the time they existed is really special. Wolf and Lady of Weeds are the standouts and I hope we see more designs like these in the future!

I suppose plot-wise this is something Swamp Thing readers have all seen before, but the art and tone give it all a very fresh feel. If you know someone whose curious about Swamp Thing, but tends to stay away from horror this might be the book to recommend.