What Exactly is So Terrible About Doug Wheeler's Swamp Thing

[Timothy Hunter]

Aside from the obvious fact that Wheeler had the misfortune of hijacking Veitch's potentially legendary run on Swamp Thing, and the pitfalls of the art*, what exactly is so bad about this run? I have read summaries of the various issues and it seems to continue the same traditions as Moore and Veitch's Swamp Thing and it introduced the current iteration of Tefe Holland.

*the two major complaints I have seen, which say nothing of Wheeler's actual writing.

[pjerooo]

The writing is abysmal. Moore can get wordy at times, but his sentences always have a point and there's a certain beauty to them, as he is very skilled in his art. Wheeler is just needlessly wordy – it's all purple prose without style or substance. He did write some decent episodes (mostly standalone stories), but his run is mostly awful.

[dancj]

Basically what pjerooo said - except the bit about "some decent episodes".

There was one good issue in that run - but then after being surprised by it I checked and it turned out to be a guest fill-in by Andy Helfer.