Warning: contains spoilers for The Swamp Thing: Season Two #12!
DC has hinted at a twisted, mechanical opposite of Swamp Thing and the Parliament of Trees. In The Swamp Thing: Season Two #12, Levi Kamen, the new Swamp Thing, learns of a great shift in the world, as the Parliament of Gears, a machine-based counterpart to his Parliament of Trees, are making their move, reanimating dead machines—including an atomic bomb.
Famously, Alan Moore’s 1980s run on Saga of the Swamp Thing retooled the character, transforming him into a Plant Elemental. Among the many concepts Moore and his collaborators introduced was the Parliament of Trees. This Parliament, located in South America, consisted of former Plant Elementals who had since forsaken the outside world, opting instead for a life of contemplation; the Parliament is also responsible for selecting new Swamp Things. In Season One of The Swamp Thing, readers met the new Swamp Thing: Levi Kamen and witnessed his struggle to come to terms with what he had become. Levi fought the Pale Wanderer, a wraith from the deserts of the American Southwest; after the Wanderer’s defeat, his body was taken by Jason Woodrue and in The Swamp Thing: Season Two #11, industrialist Harper Pilgrim ate the remains of the Wanderer, creating a horrifying new being.
Now, in Swamp Thing: Season Two #12, readers see what this creature has in store for humanity. The issue is written by Ram V, illustrated by Mike Perkins, colored by Mike Spicer, and lettered by Aditya Bidikar. After merging with Pilgrim, the Pale Wanderer realizes his true nature: to be the vanguard of a new Parliament, one built on machinery, war, subjugation and greed. The Wanderer christens it the “Parliament of Gears” and he is its avatar. As he leaves he renames himself “the Pale Pilgrim.” Later, Wildstorm’s Jack Hawksmoor returns to Detroit, immediately sensing something is wrong. As he investigates, he encounters machine men, and readers learn these are constructs created by the new Parliament of Gears. The Parliament has the ability to reanimate dead and buried technology, and the issue ends with the arrival of Trinity—a revived atomic bomb given human form.
The Parliament of Gears has arrived in the DC Universe, a dark and grotesque perversion of the Parliament of Trees; its initial champions, the Pale Pilgrim and Trinity are dark inversions of Swamp Thing. The Pale Pilgrim has unleashed a monstrous new force on the DC Universe, one built on technology. This new Parliament is also built on concepts of greed and war, running counter to everything Swamp Thing and the Parliament of Trees stand for. More than a few heroes rely on high-tech gear, giving the Pale Pilgrim and the Parliament of Gears a serious advantage over them. Even Jack Hawksmoor, who derives his power from the cities, had difficulties fighting the Parliament of Gears’ constructs. Regardless of what happens next, it seems like the Parliament of Gears will rank among Swamp Thing’s scariest villains ever.
The Parliament of Trees is one of the most powerful forces in the DC Universe, responsible for creating Swamp Thing. Their time may soon be drawing to an end, as a dark, machine-based counterpart has arrived and not even Swamp Thing may be able to stop them.
Swamp Thing: Season Two #12 is available now in print and digital from DC Comics!
