Geoff Boucher of Deadline is just one of the many that have been pointing to the upcoming Swamp Thing series that some folks are becoming aware of and are starting to get excited for. Apparently Michael Beach has joined the cast as Nathan Ellery, a shrewd and driven businessman with very questionable ethics. Fans of DC might recognize Beach from his brief role in Aquaman as the elder Manta that was killed early on in the movie. He’ll be playing one of the more villainous roles for which he’s well-suited since he’s been the villain-type before in The 100 as well, though usually his villain roles tend to come from a desire to do something good or at least something pragmatic that might be deemed as good in his eyes. He’ll be helping to round out the cast that includes Kevin Durand, Will Patton, Jennifer Beals, Virginia Madsen, and several other notable individuals. The series is set to start in a couple of days on May 31st and so far the trailer looks rather interesting as it almost seems to have a kind of Stranger Things feel leading up to the eventual reveal of the famed character that is determined to keep the swamps safe and as uncontaminated as possible.
The Swamp Thing has been one of DC’s mainstays for a long time now if you want the honest truth and while it’s been brought to light in previous projects it’s never really been given the kind of attention that this character really deserves. This is one of the characters that DC might have cultivated if others hadn’t stepped in they way so repeatedly to be milked as cash cows since Swamp Thing is an immensely powerful character. He has a great many weaknesses that are easy enough to exploit, but finding them and actually managing to take advantage of them isn’t quite as easy as it might seem. His ability to control plant life on a small to grand scale and do so with such ease is a big part of why he’s so dangerous. It wouldn’t matter if it was the mold that grows on a loaf of bread or an old-growth forest, he can control it, manipulate it, and make it work for him. He does still retain the memories of the human that he used to be in life, but for the most part this character is a part of the swamp, a protector of nature in many ways and a fierce and unforgiving opponent to those that have tried to take him down in the past.
So far it would seem that the show is going to take a lot of the source material into account, at least looking at it from the trailer, and will possibly do more good by keeping the Swamp Thing in the shadows for the first part of the season so as to build the suspense. Plus, the build-up to his emergence has to be handled with care since his human side, Alec Holland, is a vital part of his story and needs to be shown so that it can be understood just how he came to be. There’s no doubt the story is going to be updated to make certain that it fits into the current era, but all the same the whole idea of Swamp Thing shouldn’t need to change much at all since the tale is something that’s versatile enough to adapt from one time period to another.
This character is one of those that we don’t hear a lot about but yet is one of the most powerful in the DC universe since he has the kind of power that’s all-encompassing in a way, meaning he can gather energy to him from many different sources and therefore could possibly outlast a large number of heroes and villains when it comes to strength, durability, and possibly overall health. One that doesn’t seem like it might happen in the series that has happened in the comics is that at one point Swamp Thing was made into a White Lantern, one of the more obscure Lantern sects in the comics, at least to non-fans. To start with things are going to go slow it would seem, and if the show picks up speed it still seems unlikely that this would be introduced since the power he wields is already on a scale that’s hard to judge since he can harness the power of the swamp around him and pretty much any other plant life in the vicinity. Giving him a power ring as well seems like it would put him well over many heroes and villains in a manner that some folks might think would be extreme.
But all in all, the series does look like it’ll be a good time and a lot of fun to watch when it arrives.
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