If there is one thing that can make me forget about the Scott Snyder slump in Swamp Thing it’s this: A perfectly written, and twisted Scott Snyder horror story. For the last two months Scott Snyder, along with Scott Tuft, has given us one disturbing story about a serial killer targeting children. What’s been amazing is just how slow of a burn this series is so far. Seven issues seemed like a lot at first for a what could’ve been a standard horror comic. But it’s obvious that both writers are taking their time to not only tell a great story but to put a lot of work into each character in the book. Case in point this issue.

I always wonder how Snyder (and Tuft) is so great at putting the tension in his titles. This particular issue just has this uneasy quality to it, it got sickening at points (in a good way). Partly because I don’t know as a reader on where he’s going with this but also because we’re essentially seeing a pedophile at work. Now Snyder and Tuft don’t exactly acknowledge this serial killer is a pedophile, but drinking beers with minors and getting ‘close’ to him? If this book had a different tone it would be a really disturbing episode of Different Strokes! But everything really works here from the introduction of the serial killer to the kids, to the bizarre stories he tells them, to that bear trap scene….Which in hindsight is pretty stupid for both kids not to flee in terror after seeing that, but hey the early 1900s were a different time. The art in this issue is fantastic as always so it’s tough to think of new things to say for Futaki’s pencils and colors. I will say that the final page impressed me because it looked so different from the rest of the issue. Kinda like seeing an end of an ‘EC Comics’ issue.

For three straight issues, Snyder and Tuft are telling one hell of a story here. The story is so disturbing but so well written it really is like watching a horror movie. You don’t wanna know where this story is going to go but you can’t peel your eyes off of it. Futaki’s painted style really works here too and if it was any other type of art style it might not have worked in the end. So let’s see where the fourth issue is going to take us next month. It’s probably going to be fucking horrifying…and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.