Swamp Thing #31 *Discussion/Spoilers*

[pageturner]

I wonder if there could be more Avatars. One for energy maybe?

[AngusH]

Yeah, this was a great little arc. Mushroom Thing was awesome... I'd guessed that Miki was going to wind up being an avatar of the blue given the upcoming Aquaman tie-in, but I guess it's still possible that that's a 'thing'.

[jtd]

I wonder if there could be more Avatars. One for energy maybe?

Neat idea. What about perhaps one for minerals? Ala,"Animal, Vegetable, Mineral...".

And for a few years I thought it could be kooky, but cool to somehow work in Plastic Man as a connection with synthetics. Given the amount of synthetic material on the Earth now, could a new type of pervasive/connecting force be burgeoning? I'm kind of thinking like Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" storyline.

[Sharkey]

As great as it was introducing a new Avatar and elemental force, I don't think they should add any more to be honest. To me, reading from what people have suggested would just dilute the character and concepts that the current four have. I can deal with the Grey popping up out of nowhere because they have no Parliament and the single avatar they do have is a very reluctant body-swapping person - the outsider element as it were. The Grey too seems to be more an amalgamation of the Green and the Rot, but I like that.

On the subject of the Futures' End Swamp Thing special, the solicitation says;

The Avatars of the Green, Red and Gray go to war with the avatars of Bacteria and Metal! It’s five years later, and Alec Holland is trying to mediate a ceasefire that could also be his last stab at reconnecting with humanity!

I like the idea of the three Avatars working together (presumably Swampy, Buddy Baker and Miki), but am unsure of introducing yet another two elemental concepts. Bacteria in my mind treads too much on the grounds of the Grey and the Rot, but Metal I can deal with since that seems different from the more organic aspects of the others. I would like to hope that Bacteria and Metal are exclusively part of the "5 Years Later / Futures' End" reality, because I don't think enough time has been spent recently on the relationships that Swampy and the Green has with the other elements.

Post-Futures' End special, I'm hoping for the Rot and Red to return in some aspect. I miss the concept of the ever-changing balancing act of power between the Green, the Red and the Rot that Snyder's run heavily prevailed. That's not to say I'm not loving all the new concepts that Soule and company have introduced since - Capucine, The Wolf and Lady Weeds, the Sureen, the reinvention of Jason Woodrue as Seeder and generally more subtle integration of Swamp Thing into the New 52 as a whole. All fantastic!

Maybe I just want to see what the Arcanes have been up to. We saw in Villain's Month that Anton can or is at least capable of escaping his mental prison, and I cannot remember what became of William Arcane!

Then again, I adored the overall concepts of Rotworld, so make of my opinions and thoughts what you will!

[Blue Light]

Sorry for the necromancy cantrip, finally got my copy of this issue.

Just wanted to mention that what happened with the Avatar body is partly Alec's fault for making the Parliament of Trees dormant. Those folks may be jerks, but they could've taken the powers away from that body. I wonder if that'll occur to Alec or if maybe someone will say it to him.

I also wonder if there's a way for Alec to make a new Parliament, since it's useful to have but it'd be best to have a way to make sure it's not full of ar*eholes.

Oh, and why does the Grey need an Avatar? The amount of fungus in the world seems to be doing OK to me...

[Geralt of Rivia]

That sneaky sneaky Wolf though I imagine he couldn't have predicted the Grey would be a factor in all of this, but interested to know further his longer term goals.

What Id like to know is exactly how was the Wolf able to set up such a complex operation in the little time he's spent as a human back again, was he able to sieze a German biotech company just like that? Now those are some serious resources and extremely fast buyout negotiations.