130 replies to this topic

[Rogan]

JasonT, on 25 June 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

Rogan, on 22 June 2011 - 02:59 PM, said:

Well, that was... generic, painfully Dick-Van-Dyke-ish, cringe-inducing ... Liked the alternate cover and the artwork was bland, problematic but not exactly rubbish, so I'll give this one a 3/10.

+1. (Agreeing with what you said; not +1 to the 3/10.)

What was your grade?

JasonT, on 25 June 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

Rogan, on 24 June 2011 - 11:41 AM, said:

Yeah, quite a lot of things don't make sense with Batman's appearance, as James pointed out. What was the purpose of John (long-distance) knocking out Alfred in the Batcave?

Y'know, I suspect it was simply to justify the line "I'm a nasty piece of work..." Assuming the writer feels the need to have Constantine deliver the catchphrase, then Constantine has to do something 'nasty' to arrive at that point. In this case, knocking out an innocent butler.

It's still pretty shitty, any way you spin it - since he did it "long distance", Constantine would have to know the identity/location of the said butler, or at the very least the fact that someone like that even exists. Same goes for the Bat-puter - was it in the newspapers that Batman has a big crime-solving computer?!
If Constantine knows about the computer, and can magically affect people in the Batcave (did he use th, he can certainly find out where it's located, and could magically stroll in there while no one's around, try to look up Swampy all by himself. or hijack the bat-signal, and ask Bats for help, or anything that isn't this convoluted and arbitrary. (this isn't directed at you, JasonT, it's just me venting)

JasonT, on 25 June 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

Rogan, thanks for gathering all those reviews.

Don't mention it, I was a bit bored and had Google at my fingertips.

[JasonT]

Is that what you're calling it now?  

Rogan, on 25 June 2011 - 09:08 AM, said:

What was your grade?

3, same as you. I was being silly and trying to imply 3+1 would be generous. Didn't make that very clear, sorry.

I'm rarely capable of deciding on grades out of 10, and indeed didn't actually vote in the poll.

[TimC]

JasonT, on 25 June 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

The other newspaper readers on page 1 aren't a problem either. "The last man... who actually buys a newspaper" is exaggeration, not literal truth.

I took it as a reference to the ubiquity of free 'newspapers' like Metro in London and other UK cities - ie, the emphasis is on the buys.

[JasonT]

Does John Constantine buy?

[Shawn]

Reading this thread was more enjoyable than the comic itself. Thanks everyone!

[JasonT]

You're welcome.

[Rogan]

JasonT, on 25 June 2011 - 09:46 PM, said:

You're welcome.

Brilliant! So meta.

[Shawn]

Tis hilarious, like, innit. I'm well chuffed, I am.

or some such

[Rogan]

JasonT, on 25 June 2011 - 11:58 AM, said:

Does John Constantine buy?

Of course, he's a well-known buysexual. He'll put up a few quid for a lorry (that's what they call newspapers in England).

[Rogan]

Here are some other reviews :

The Savage Critic :
There’s absolutely nothing likeable about this comic book, and it not only fundamentally misunderstands john Constantine, but makes Batman look like a moron, as well. Nice trick!
This was pure CRAP, or as this comic might have put it: “Strewth, that was a right load of cobblers, oi, guv’nor?”


ComicList Geek Google Reviews : 2/5 Geek Goggles
Batman and Constantine have some decent banter over the spread of three or four pages but this is where the issue became too much about Constantine. I understand that Constantine and Swamp Thing are two characters that will be engrained back into the DCU when the reboot occurs so why not use this mini-series to further that purpose. However, it was overkill to the point that the scenes took away from both Swamp Thing and Batman. Not only does Constantine break into the Batmobile but he also manages to render Alfred unconscious. Batman's reactions aren't exactly what I would expect either as he just keeps demanding to know who the man is and what information he has. It just felt really odd that Batman would behave this way with Alfred knocked out cold.

CX Pulp : 3.5/5
Although this miniseries is called The Search For Swamp Thing, the first issue at least is much more about re-integrating John Constantine into the DC Universe. His interaction with Batman (Dick Grayson) is really good stuff – he’s not at all the Batman that Constantine expected, and he has no qualms about making his disappointment known. Bringing Zatanna into the series is a nice touch as well – she and Constantine have a history, of course, and this issue recognizes that. It works into the story well. The ending is a good twist as well, bringing about the realization that Alec Holland’s resurrection may not have been as cut and dried as it seemed.

Yajhoo! Associated Content :
Former Vertigo editor John Vankin picks up the writing duties from Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi and doesn't skip a beat with "Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing" Issue #1. He successfully combines  the more "mature" world of Vertigo with the DC Universe in a brilliant manner. John Constantine is at his cocky and troublesome best. The guy has the audacity to talk smack to Batman. The only other character we get to see in this issue is Zatanna. For some fans, the cover featuring Superman might cause some readers to be let down. I am more than happy. I get Batman and Swamp Thing in the same issue! Vankin also does a wonderful job of building up suspense and dropping a bomb right before the close of the book to leave you sweating for more.

Progressive Ruin:
As I said when I originally addressed Tim’s question: when it comes to Swamp Thing, the filters tend to go down. There’s “appreciating the efforts of a writer and artist in telling their story,” and then there’s “oh boy, I wonder what’s going to happen to my favorite character next?” Swamp Thing is probably one of the very few characters that still trigger that latter fanboy response in me, where what is happening with the character is more important to me than how what is happening to the character is presented. I can recognize that perhaps this isn’t the best comic book in the world, but I didn’t loathe it like some reviewers I saw out there, and I still enjoyed it more for furthering the continuing adventures of Swamp Thing than for its artistic or literary merit. So, you know, I guess it was a success, at least for me.

The Buy Pile :
The "Meh" Pile Not good enough to praise, not bad enough to insult, not important enough to say much more than the title
"Guild Bladezz," "Action Comics" #902, "Captain America" #619, "Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing" #1, "Iron Man 2.0" #6, "Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost Starring Bart Allen" #1, "Mystery Men" #2, "Flashpoint: Lois Lane and The Resistance" #1, "Sigil" #4, "Flashpoint: The Reverse Flash" #1, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man" #160, "Green Arrow" #13, "Planet of the Apes" #3, "Justice League of America" #58, "Stan Lee's The Traveler" #8, "Vertigo Resurrected: The Sandman Presents Petrefax" #1

Broken Frontier :
Instead of crafting a fast-paced search for Swamp Thing, Vankin treads water and rehashes the past.  With one-third of this story come and gone, it must be asked what the purpose of this miniseries actually is?  A brand new Swamp Thing title hits the shelves in September, but in the mean time Brightest Day Aftermath comes across as more of a time-filler than a compelling story.


Multiversity Comics :
In The Search for Swamp Thing #1, John Constantine learned of Swamp Thing's return and promptly did the most sensible thing: started talking to some plants. After surviving a bit of weed whacking, the magician made his way to Gotham City and did the least sensible thing: pissed off Batman. After being thrown out of a car, Constantine explained that the world was very much in danger now that Alec Holland was back. Why? Well, I didn't quite catch it, but I imagine it has something to do with Alan Moore putting a curse on everything or something like that.

Heretical Jargon: 8/10 stars
My apologies as I’m allowing my love for Swamp Thing to take over this review of a comic focused on John Constantine.  When I read through this issue the first time, I was a little jolted by some of the dialogue and character interactions…It didn’t feel enough like Constantine.  However, a second read through allowed me to process the character’s depth within this first issue.  Vankin allows readers the chance to become acquainted with Constantine while developing the plot at the same time.  We especially get a double dose of his arrogance as he dared to set foot in the Batmobile with a cigarette in hand, something Batman wasn’t too happy about.

Kitty's Pride : 2/5
Which seems to be the problem with this issue. The events are laid out, but not in a way that makes it easy to follow and understand. It almost seems like pieces are missing. Constantine is looking for Batman, to use his computer, but we’re not told why he needs the computer. He’s in Gotham, sees the bat signal and next thing we know he’s knocked out Alfred and teleported into the Batmobile.
Huh?
When did he track down Alfred? The prior page had him seeing the bat signal and that somehow led him to Alfred? It seems like some pages were missing.
Constantine takes Batman into the Green and they get attacked by Swamp Thing and the next thing we know is that Zatanna is waking Constantine up. Wait? How’d Batman get out of the green. When did he get ahold of Zatanna? How long was Constantine out?
Stuff is missing. The pacing is off. It’s off from the beginning and never gets on track. Opens in a bar with a friend of Constantine’s talking with him, a guy named Chas. Then we see Constantine walking the streets and into the Royal Botanic Gardens. There he gets attacked and somehow Chas shows up.

Geek New Wave : 2/5
This story takes place after the events of Brightest Day and I can say right off the bat that there’s nothing about this story I cared about. I don’t care about Swamp Thing and I don’t care about John Constantine. Also, with the DC reboot coming way, does this book even matter? Well, I guess you can say that about them all now. Story written by Jonathan Vankin and artwork done by Marco Castiello. The story really never kept me wanting more. The only thing I wanted was to see was Swamp Thing, which you do for only one page and that’s where the story ends. Castiello’s artwork is good for this type of story, but it wasn’t enough to keep my attention. I don’t know if I’ll keep picking it up, but I have to wait and see what’s going to happen next.

The Verbal Mosh podcast :
The review is around the 17 minute mark. They liked it.


Newsarama : Best Shots
It shouldn't surprise anyone that a couple of brooding detective-types don't get along. That's one thing. But when putting John Constantine and Batman together in a story like this one, the foremost responsibility of the storytellers is to create a sense, if nothing else, that both characters belong. I am not overly opinionated, one way or the other, about the validity of folding the Vertigo characters back into the DCU. I don't have a problem seeing these disparate characters cohabitate, so long as a credible common ground is established and the stories can serve both genre masters. Conceptually, a Search for Swamp Thing is a perfect vehicle to intermingle these gumshoe types, along with a few other familiar faces. After all, Swamp Thing was the intellectual forerunner to the Vertigo brand, and it was in that title that John Constantine debuted, and so a few capes here and there is nothing new. But if the idea with this book is to show the new status quo of how Vertigo and the DCU are one big happy family that live on one big happy world, the hope would be that this book celebrates some of the sophisticated weirdness of Vertigo. Instead, it feels more like a celebration of the many licenses of DC Entertainment. For me, John Constantine was never a particularly special character unto himself. What is special about Hellblazer is that it is a vehicle to tell a particular kind of story, one that can't be housed elsewhere in very many comics. In that regard, The Search for Swamp Thing is a Hellblazer kind of story; it has the intrigue, the magic, and Chas. The art from Marco Castiello and Vincenzo Acunzo does feel like the meeting point for DC action and Vertigo moodiness. Troubles arise in the voices of Bats and Constantine. When playing against one another, they both read like caricatures. These are ostensibly serious characters, but here it is hard to take both seriously. This story doesn't feel as thought it grew organically. Or that it was a story waiting to be told when the circumstances allowed. It reads more like a crossover, where there is an agenda and the chief objective is to throw the toys together and hope that's enough to satisfy the masses. Team-ups like this one are meant to be fun. This just feels sort of like the main players are being made fun of.


Chad Parenteau’s Photo Review of Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #1

[James]

Rogan, on 25 June 2011 - 05:24 AM, said:

CraveOnline :
The idea for what’s driving Swamp Thing mad is also interesting, a point we haven’t seen thus far in DC.

Except in about three or four Swamp Thing stories over the past 30 years.

[James]

JasonT, on 25 June 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

"The last man... who actually buys a newspaper" is exaggeration, not literal truth.

Yeah, but it looks really stupid. If someone said that to me while we were sat next to two other people reading newspapers they'd  be leaving themselves open to a severe pisstaking.

Quote

James, on 23 June 2011 - 03:26 PM, said:

Also not clear on how Batman's day works out. He starts off outside of town, looking at the dead Mafia guy, right? Then he jumps off a building in the centre of Gotham and gets into the Batmobile?

No. There's at least a "LATER" in between, but there could also be a delay between the dump scene and the taxi scene long enough for John's international flight. The comic has problems, but that ain't one.

So what was Batman doing in-between taking a sample from the crime scene and contacting Alfred in the Batmobile? You can add your own filler to explain the gap in the story, but that gap just shouldn't be there at all.

Quote

Well, where do you think Batman goes when he sees the signal? Conjob went to the GCPD building and found the Batmobile from there.

See above. Batman and Constantine's itineraries don't meet up unless either (a) Vankin has arbitrarily told the middle of the issue out of sequence without notifying the reader, (b) Batman has been off doing a load of other superhero stuff between the tree and contacting Alfred, (c ) Vankin doesn't quite get how the Bat-signal works or (d) it's just been thrown together without a great deal of thought.

I sincerely doubt (a), there's nothing in the text that directly states (b), and (c ) strikes me as a possibility - however, I'm ultimately going with (d).

[James]

TimC, on 25 June 2011 - 11:48 AM, said:

JasonT, on 25 June 2011 - 07:23 AM, said:

The other newspaper readers on page 1 aren't a problem either. "The last man... who actually buys a newspaper" is exaggeration, not literal truth.

I took it as a reference to the ubiquity of free 'newspapers' like Metro in London and other UK cities - ie, the emphasis is on the buys.

Chas is using an iPad in that scene, though, which suggests that the subject of Chas's jibe is the medium, not the cost. Plus, it's setting up Chas's remarks about 'Facespace' (surely Friendbook sounds a bit more convincing?) and computers, to give John the inspiration to track down Bats.

[Rogan]

Jonathan Vankin shares A Few Thoughts On John Constantine, from his website :

Quote

The first issue of my 3-part mini-series BRIGHTEST DAY AFTERMATH: THE SEARCH FOR SWAMP THING hits comics shops next week. On Wednesday, June 22 to be exact. The reappearance of John Constantine in the DC Universe is a pretty big deal, and when Dan DiDio and Bob Harras told me they wanted me to handle it, I was honored, to be honest.

At the same time, I felt a little funny about it because, as a former Vertigo editor I knew how much the character meant to Karen Berger. Not only do I respect the character but, more importantly, I have nothing but the highest respect for Karen.

All I could do, then, was honor the character by writing the "real" John Constantine as best I could. So even though the John in my series is a different version of John Constantine from the John who appears monthly in Vertigo's long-running Hellblazer series, in my mind, he's still the same guy: a cynical, sarcastic, self-interested anti-hero -- with just enough of a conscience to make life hard on himself.

Throughout the whole three issues, you'll find little references to John's history. Some are pretty obvious, others not so much. I wanted to include those not to show how clever I am or how many back issues of Hellblazer I've read, but to pay my own small homage to the writers who guided John through his last 25 or so years of adventures: in particular Alan Moore who created John, and Jamie Delano who gave John the personality and history that all Constantine aficionados know well.

Of course, like any writer, I put my own "spin" on John. Constantine's often referred to as "the working class mage." To me, the emphasis is on working class. I see John as a man who's always had t make his own way through life. No one ever gives him anything. If there's a problem to be solved, he takes care of it himself. And he does it with a hard-edged sense of humor that acts as his defense against the cruelties and unfairness of the world. The odds are always against him. But he uses his wits and, when he has to, a little magic to turn them back in his favor.

That's how I see John Constantine. That's how I tried to write him in this series. I hope you'll pick up the first issue on Wednesday.

[JasonT]

James, on 26 June 2011 - 03:54 AM, said:

So what was Batman doing in-between taking a sample from the crime scene and contacting Alfred in the Batmobile? You can add your own filler to explain the gap in the story, but that gap just shouldn't be there at all.

The gap doesn't bother me, and I'm not the biggest fan of this book by any means. Writers put in transitions like "LATER" to skip over gaps that (they believe) don't matter.

James, on 26 June 2011 - 03:54 AM, said:

... Batman and Constantine's itineraries don't meet up unless either (a) Vankin has arbitrarily told the middle of the issue out of sequence without notifying the reader, (b) Batman has been off doing a load of other superhero stuff between the tree and contacting Alfred, (c ) Vankin doesn't quite get how the Bat-signal works or (d) it's just been thrown together without a great deal of thought.

I sincerely doubt (a), there's nothing in the text that directly states (b), and (c ) strikes me as a possibility - however, I'm ultimately going with (d).

The caption "LATER" directly states (b). And I'm also going with (d).

Rogan, on 26 June 2011 - 04:12 AM, said:

Quote

... So even though the John in my series is a different version of John Constantine from the John who appears monthly in Vertigo's long-running Hellblazer series, in my mind, he's still the same guy: a cynical, sarcastic, self-interested anti-hero -- with just enough of a conscience to make life hard on himself.

Quote

... Jamie Delano who gave John the personality and history that all Constantine aficionados know well. ...

Not all of them, apparently.

[James]

JasonT, on 26 June 2011 - 05:21 AM, said:

The caption "LATER" directly states (b).

Sorry to make this drag on, but no it doesn't - it just says that the Batmobile scene takes place after John gets in the cab. There's still a big, unexplained gap in the narrative.

[JasonT]

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Shockingly.

[A. Heathen]

Anyway, LATER ...

[Rogan]

Do we cut away to a scene where James kicks Jason?

[A. Heathen]

That's only part of it.

James first goes for a cup of tea in the Gotham City Hilton, for it is the only place in Gotham City that makes proper tea.
Red points out to Jason that proper tea is theft and so Jason fires up the Bat signal.
James goes on to Alfred about all this BLOOMIN' PALAVER, and Alfred laughs at James for buying a newspaper when he could have picked one off the table that had been left there by John Constantine.
At this point, Jason arrives, kicks James and then cooks Alfred a meal, thus sending him for a post-prandial nap.
While Batman is distracted, James finds a loop-hole in the Batmobile, through which John Constantine enters.
Everyone gets on the synchronicity highway home.


More importantly: IMPORTANT UPDATE TO ANNOTATIONS:

I like how Jon Vankin has referenced the current Hellblazer story, by having Constantine hold a cigarette and newspaper in what should be finger and thumb, but must clearly be an extra thumb. (And before someone (probably whoever gave this issue 7) points out this is an artist error, we have yet to prove that all the problems in the comic are not cleverly scripted moments for us die hard Hellblazer fans.)