I started Animal Man at #1, but ignored Swamp Thing because, well, I figured how good could a book about a big green slimy thing be? Then I saw Swamp Thing getting really good reviews, and that it involved the same background as Animal Man, with The Rot. So I tried it out, and now Animal Man and Swamp Thing are two of my favorite DC books.
On the non-DC / Marvel front, I've read the first three trades of Chew, and they're great. It's set where the bird flu wiped out a good portion of the population, so chicken is now outlawed, and the FDA is the largest law enforcement agency in the world. The main character can learn the history of anything he eats, so he gets to eat a lot of disgusting stuff during his investigations! And if that's not enough, there are vampires and an alien plant involved. Nice!
Ken