Swamp Thing #10

How bloody can it really get? Arcane's fighting a plant.

Well, it's bloody because Anton Arcane has just tortured the reader nearly to death. Well, not the reader. The listener because Anton is telling a story about Abigail Arcane to the victim at his feet. But I said the reader because the comic is from the point of view of Arcane's soon-to-be-dead victim.
This is how Abigail's story begins.

This is making me suspect Anton is Abigail's father and grandfather.

While Anton tells his story (which really doesn't tell much of anything new except that part there where Abby killed her mother), Abigail drives Swamp Thing back to the swamp where he can recuperate. But that's where Anton is waiting. He senses she has arrived and cuts his story short.

Is that it? Am I dead now? Is that all there is? Can I keep reading? What's the protocol here?

Abby and Alec pull up to Abby's old Swamp Mansion. She leads him out back into the swamp where she notices a small grove of saplings. Alec explains that they're the Parliament of Trees; he pulled their essence out of the earth and brought it here once he's was fully transformed into the Swamp Thing. Alec then warns Abby that once he lies down in the swamp to heal, he won't be able to wake up if she needs him. Uh oh. Because I think she's going to need him as soon as he falls asleep.

I've got just about every other combination of person kissing person, so I figured I should post woman kissing plant for all of your Floraphiles.

Or maybe Swampy will need Abby's help as soon as he closes his eyes! Anton Arcane goes after Swamp Thing first. He tells him he wants him awake to see what he's going to do to Abby. And then the scene cuts to inside the mansion. Abby hears a noise and pulls her gun. But it's no help. Her house is filled with Un-Men, Anton's beast friends. And Anton enters soon after.

I wish this were somehow truly terrifying.

Swamp Thing #10 Rating: No change. This story will probably play out much better in a collected trade. But in the single issue, it was flat and boring because nothing really happened. As I said in the previous caption, I wish it were scary. I think the mood is supposed to be creepy and tense and unheimlichy. But the art was flat and monotone. Probably on purpose to set the mood and tone but since I felt like the mood failed, the story didn't do anything for me. But the comic isn't bad at all, so I won't drop it a rank. Maybe I should have read it in a dark room with creepy noises after having dropped acid.