Broken Frontier

DC Comics has blown it—big time.

It was revealed by BleedingCool.com on June 1st 2010 that China Mieville was approached to create a new Swamp Thing miniseries for Vertigo. And then, an hour later on the same day, the project got the axe and Mieville was given the obligatory kill feel for his efforts. I’m assuming that this project was in the works for awhile, as scripts and a series bible were created.

The reason for kicking around Mieville was simple: DC Comics’ Dan DiDio wanted Swamp Thing to return to DC’s main superhero continuity. Because that’s all we need—Swamp Thing and Batman doing battle with the nefarious Poison Ivy when it’s her turn to be the villainous flavor of the week.

For those who don’t know, Mieville is an award-winning author who has penned two of the finest contemporary fantasy novels around: Perdido Street Station and The Scar (read them in that order). Mieville’s prose style is notably baroque, as is his imagination.

What makes his fantasy novels better than most is the seriousness and scope he gives to his world of Bas-Lag and his intoxicating cities of New Crobuzon and Armada. He also holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and is an active Socialist in London. I wrote about him at greater length in my review of Josh Frankel and Toby Cypress’ The Schizophrenic. I also lukewarmly reviewed his novel, The City and the City, about a year ago.

It’s not hyperbole when I say Mieville would have helped return Vertigo and their unique cast of gothic characters back to the rich days when Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, and the like were allowed to experiment with characters and plot devices, ultimately making them deeper and more enjoyable. Yes, he’s that good.

Mieville chatted with Rich Handley (who has been diligently keeping track of these developments) over at Roots of the Swamp Thing about this stupid decision on the part of DC’s editorial powers. Check it out to learn all of the details, but here are three interesting facts I gleaned:

-- Five issues were already written

-- Mieville openly challenged some of Alan Moore’s conceptions

-- Politics played an important role, but were not necessarily with a pro “green” slant

But what does it matter? Now we’ll never know what Mieville could have done with such a rich yet often under/misused character. Way to go, DC. This is one hell of a mess.