Swamp Thing #37
Swamp Thing Vol. 5 #37 is the narrative pivot of Charles Soule's 'Machine Queen' arc — the chapter in which the Kingdom of Metal's chosen Avatar, Lady Weeds, fully transforms into the Machine Queen and immediately begins assembling a coalition of Alec Holland's most dangerous enemies, including a newly escaped Anton Arcane. The issue extends Soule's ambitious expansion of the New 52 Green mythology by treating the Machine Kingdom as a fully realized elemental force on par with the Green and the Rot, a cosmological addition with lasting implications for how DC frames Swamp Thing's role as a planetary steward. While not a debut issue in the traditional key-issue sense, it represents the creative peak of a run that critics and collectors alike credit as an underrated high-water mark for the character in the post-Vertigo era. Its John Constantine guest appearance also carries added resonance, echoing the character's very first comics appearance in the earlier Saga of the Swamp Thing #37 — a quiet piece of numerical symmetry across the series' publishing history.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Charles Soule took over the New 52 Swamp Thing series from Scott Snyder in April 2013 and, paired primarily with artist Jesús Saíz, steadily widened the book's mythology well beyond the Rotworld framework Snyder had established. By the time issue #37 was produced — solicited under the Diamond order code OCT140339 and released on December 3, 2014, with a February 2015 cover date — Soule was simultaneously writing major Marvel titles including The Death of Wolverine and She-Hulk, and he would sign a Marvel exclusive shortly after concluding this run at issue #40. The book was part of DC's New 52 line, which had brought Swamp Thing back into mainstream DC continuity after years in the Vertigo imprint, and the series was cancelled as DC prepared its 2015 'Convergence' event.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published by DC Comics on December 3, 2014 (cover-dated February 2015); part of Swamp Thing Volume 5, the New 52 series that ran from 2011 to 2015.
- Written by Charles Soule; art and cover by Jesús Saíz; colored by Matt Hollingsworth; lettered by Travis Lanham.
- Story title: 'Upgrades' — the third chapter of the multi-part 'Machine Queen' arc.
- Key story beat: Lady Weeds is fully transformed into the Machine Queen, Avatar of the Kingdom of Metal, depicting her violent mechanical 'birth' from the Calculus entity.
- The Machine Queen immediately recruits the Avatar of the Grey (Fungal Avatar/Miki) and enlists a degraded, post-escape Anton Arcane as a military commander, with Arcane possessing the remains of Alec Holland's human body as a potential weapon.
- John Constantine appears as a guest, paying a 'dire visit' to Swamp Thing — a cameo that links the New 52 incarnation of the character back to his debut in the original Saga of the Swamp Thing #37 (1985).
- The creative team of Soule and Saiz took over from Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette following the conclusion of the 'Rotworld' crossover with Animal Man.
- The issue was collected in Swamp Thing Vol. 7: Season's End, the seventh and final New 52 trade paperback collection of the Soule/Saiz run.
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Reprinted in Swamp Thing #7 (2016)
Key issues in Swamp Thing
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