Biting The Root: Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette Leaving Swamp Thing

Remember yesterday, when Gail Simone got icked off of Batgirl? And I listed all the books from the initial DC New 52 that I could remember (of course, forgetting Joshua Hale Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino on I, Vampire at the very least) and bemoaned the fact that so many creators and books from that first round of rebooted comics had gone down with all hands? And that I listed Scott Snyder as working on Batman and Swamp Thing?

Yeah, funny story about that…

Hey guys – was going to wait until we got a little closer to announce this, but yes, Swamp Thing #18 will be my (cont) tl.gd/ka763m

— Scott Snyder (@Ssnyder1835) December 10, 2012

Swamp Thing #18 will be your what, Scott? Your manifesto? Your articles of sessecion from the United States of America? Your Goddamned prom date? There’s a term for Tweets that are longer than 140 characters, Scott: it’s called a fucking blog post!

Hey, what’s that link at the end of the Tweet do?

Hey guys – was going to wait until we got a little closer to announce this, but yes, Swamp Thing #18 will be my last issue, and Yanick’s too.

To be 100% clear: @YanickPaquette and I have been planning this ending – both an ending for us as creators on the book, and for the storyline we started way back in issue #1 – for a long time. Even before we signed on to do Swampy, we both knew it would be a limited run, as we had other projects in the pipeline we knew would eventually come to pass. But the chance to do Swamp Thing, to bring back a character we’ve both loved dearly since childhood, was just too thrilling to turn down.

That said, we both ended up staying longer than we’d planned, too, out of love of the character, love for the story we were getting to tell, love for our team, and above all, out of love and gratitude for you guys, the fans who’ve helped us do something here that many people said was impossible – make Swamp Thing a viable book in the DCU. For that, all of us on team Swampy will be forever grateful to you guys.

Truthfully, these characters are some of my personal favorites in comics, ever – the early issues by @LenWein and @BernieWrightson played a huge part in making me want to write in the first place. Then the fearless work by Moore, Bissette… The thing is, Swamp Thing has always been a series where creators did these crazy things, where they experimented, pushed themselves, imagined big, took risks – and the fact that you guys have supported our team, as we’ve tried our own crazy ideas on the book, story-wise, artistically…. it really means the world to us. It’s been a tremendous honor to write this book. And to have worked on it alongside friends like the art team – and one of my best friends in the world, and one of mu writing idols, @JeffLemire… Don’t know how to thank you all for giving me the opportunity.

Anyway, all this sounds so fucking sad, BUT – please know that these issues coming up next are the big ones – the status-quo-changing-mega-ones 🙂 – that we’ve been building towards since issue #1. So the best is still coming, with the finale of Rotworld and our shocking storyline ending in Swampy #18.

After that, Swampy will continue with an exciting new team, to be announced soon. Please give them the love and support you’ve shown us. They certainly have our blessing.

Again everyone, can’t thank you all enough for this one. You guys made this gig a dream come true in every way, corny as that sounds. I thank you, team Swampy thanks you – and from deep in the swamp, Alec Holland, Abby Arcane, The Parliament, even Uncle Anton thanks you, too.

Scott

Okay, so this situation is a little different than it was with Gail Simone and Batgirl, in that Simone was, well, apparently summarily fired, while Snyder is, between leaving Swamp Thing and putting American Vampire on hiatus, apparently clearing his schedule to keep his short-term focus on Batman, his upcoming Man of Steel Superman title with Jim Lee, and his new Vertigo title The Wake with Punk Rock Jesus‘s Sean Murphy. So it’s not like this is a bolt from the blue the way Simone’s announcement was.

But still, this is a continuing trend that is troubling for DC less than a year and a half after the New 52 reboot: with a few exceptions, the best books and teams from the reboot are rapidly dropping by the wayside. We here at Crisis On Infinite Midlives have found that the DC books have, over the months, made their way to the bottom of our “must read” pile on a weekly basis (with some exceptions like Batman, Justice League and… well, I’m sure there are others, but I have been drinking (oh O.M.A.C., where art thou?). Sure, there are several books remaining from the New 52 that we continue to read and enjoy, but the number that are read before almost anything else has dropped precipitously.

And again, that overall phenomenon is probably a subject for a more detailed editorial soon, but for the time being, let’s pour out some biorestorative formula for yet another New 52 book’s original creative team falling by the wayside.

But at the very least, it looks like Swamp Thing will get an actual, logical, intended story arc end from the current creative team:

And to be clear – #18 will be the ending we’ve been building toward since #1, the big finale and coda.

— Scott Snyder (@Ssnyder1835) December 10, 2012

If I were a cynical man, I might guess that the end will be that Alex Holland finds fame and fortune writing Batman, and decides to give up being Swamp Thing to pursue more lucrative endeavors… but nah; Snyder’s done right by all the characters he’s written for DC so far, so I’m sure this will wind up in a reasonably satisfying way.