Swamp Thing: Brilliant Disguise

Last episode ended with Alec Holland miraculously transforming to his human self in front of Abby Arcane. This episode, we find out that this is a result of a spore hallucinogen that just makes Swamp Thing look like Alec, but in fact his physical form remains the same.

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It’s a brilliant compromise that ‘The Green’ seems to have sensed Alec needed at the time. We also find out that ‘The Green’ is more emphatic to Alec than just an image change. It can provide for all of Alec’s needs at a thought. This includes providing fruit bearing plants and healing herbs from distant places not found in the swamp. Through these instances, we can see just how powerful Swamp Thing can become if only Alec would embrace the role more. Slowly, he is growing into the role, and with good reason with the coming of ‘The Rot’.

Image is not mine and used for review purposes under the conditions of free use.

In the a previous episode, we were alerted to the possible existence of ‘The Rot’, a Jeff Lemiere creation, because of that swarm of insects that took over a human body. ‘Brilliant Disguise’ all but confirms this, and ‘The Rot’ appears to be identified as the big baddie that ‘The Green’ is up against. This led to the creation of Swamp Thing…supposedly. We get to see just how dangerous ‘The Rot’ is as an adversary can be as it infects itself in Abby Arcane. I love the metaphor brought about here with the inner war between ‘The Green’ and ‘The Rot’ in Abby’s body: Nature vs. the corruption of it (by man?). Good to know that Swamp Thing is strong enough to fight ‘The Rot’ from Abby’s body with a bit of Abby’s willpower. This could be a foreshadowing of things to come.

Another element of Swamp Thing lore looked at again is ‘The Conclave’ introduced by Len Wein. Here we have a businessman representative of the group in the form of Nathan Ellery. Ellery was contacted by Avery Sunderland to pitch his new regenerative discovery courtesy of Dr. Jason Woodrue. We already saw how this discovery worked on Daniel Cassidy. In spite of the side effects, the idea was pitched by Maria in Avery’s absence (more on that later) with the help of Dr. Woodrue. Jason is more than happy to see this project go to fruition because of the Alzheimer’s his wife is now experiencing. This is all big money for the Sunderland’s. So where is Avery?

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Well, it looks like Avery’s luck caught up with him in a bad way. Maria and Sheriff Lucilla Cable conspired to murder Avery. Sheriff Cable even involved her son, Matt, to finish him off. The mother-son team lured Avery out to the swamp with the presence of hunting down Alec aka Swamp Thing. On that note, we also find out that Matt is the son of Avery. This sneaky bastard really has a lot of skeletons in his closet for him and everybody else in Marais. This is most probably the reason why Maria and Lucilla combined forces to get rid of this manipulative character. But, Avery survives the ambush in the swamp screaming. So, not everything went according to Maria and Lucilla’s plan. With the current state of Avery, something tells me that he might be the champion for ‘The Rot’ in the same way Alec is to ‘The Green’.

In ‘Brilliant Disguise’, we not only see how Alec is learning to adapt to his new persona, but we also see a bit of SWAMP THING’s advocacy. The episode highlights the forces at battle in Marais and the possible outcome. In all this, humanity plays an important role in the environment’s survival. ‘Brilliant Disguise’ provides a timely message and SWAMP THING shows both the danger and beauty of nature gone wild.