The second volume of Swamp Thing - The Bronze Age offers up the remaining issues of the original run of the 70's series and in addition treats the reader to some of the Swamp Thing's guest-starring roles in the years between this cancelation of the first series and the beginning of Saga of the Swamp Thing. The first volume neatly showcased the astounding first ten issues of the run by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. Then also goes onto to showcase the three additional issues written by Wein but drawn with good effect by Nestor Redondo.
The main problem with the
Swamp Thing as a continuing series was constant change of scene in the book which saw the Swamp Thing in Europe and all across the United States. With Wein's departure, Redondo is joined by writer David Michelinie. Redondo's rendition of the Swamp Thing is quite good and in some ways more effective than Wrightson's at communicating the plant nature of the creature. But Wrightson was virtually incapable of drawing anything that didn't feel gothic, and Redondo's work does not have that immediate horror feel to it. In their first story together the team has Swamp Thing run across some mutant kids who are persecuted by the local town folk. He intervenes but it is the extreme bravery of one of the kids which marks this issue. There are also giant ants, so that's another boost.
In the next installment Swampy runs up against a strangely intense preacher and discovers that demons can hide where you least expect them. Matt Cable and Abigail Arcane are joined by Bolt and another man in their pursuit of Swamp Thing. It's a dangerous thing to join up with Cable though and many a minor character has paid that price.
In the third installment Swamp Thing finds himself on an island and discovers a strange woman who is the last of her tribe and her companion, a Vietnam vet who has become a mercenary because he has found living in peace in the United States a supreme challenge. These two are waging a war of liberty for natives of the island and oddly Swamp Thing ends up not being very helpful at all.
Cable, Arcane and Bolt are back along with an old foe who seeks revenge on Swamp Thing and uses his vast array of robots to try and get that revenge. The gang escape by helicopter but wreck it yet again.
The gang stumble across a bizarre village in the swamps filled with old folks who seem to behave more like children than anything else. Turns out there's an occult scheme afoot to steal the lifeforce of unwary folks and give longer life to some of those inside the village.
Bob Haney and Jim Aparo step in to give Swampy a The Brave and the Bold adventure alongside Batman. Bats knows Swampy from the latter's own series when Batman was the first mainstream DC hero to guest-star in the comic. This time it's Swamp Thing's turn when he's captured by a big game hunter and put on display in Gotham . He's just in time to help Batman battle a monstrous plant outbreak in the streets of the big city.
We get the first true two-part tale in the run when Swamp Thing must battle a version of himself. One of his weird properties is that he can regrow any body part which might be cut off. Once he lost an arm and while he regrew it the original arm also continued to grow and eventually became another Swamp Thing, albeit minus Alec Holland's intellect. In a story dealing with the ecology and Native American myth the two Swamp Thing battle it out. As usual Cable, Arcane and Bolt are along for the ride.
In one of the most bizarre Swamp Thing tales, he is whisked away to a to a distant outer space habitat which is at once the domain and prison of Solus, a criminal put way for his planet's safety. But he passes his time by kidnapping folks from various worlds and using them for sport. Swamp Thing arrives just in time to assist with an uprising among the assembled aliens.
Back on Earth Swamp Thing is still in deep trouble when he's captured and taken into an underworld community which is populated by mutated humans and the soldiers who guard them. The mutation was the result of a botched scheme to test yet another weapon underground in the deserts of the Western United States. Swamy is lucky to escape and he ends up in Oregon where he'd grown up. There he seeks his brother. This is Michelilnie's last issue as scripter.
The pentultimate issue marks the debut of Gerry Conway for one issue as there is a seeming attempt to redirect the Swamp Thing comic and move it away from its mystery and science fiction roots and more into a superhero mode. To that end Swampy is given a villain dubbed "Sabre" in a full-blown super-villain outfit and the Swamp Thing himself finds he's been transformed back into Alec Holland. The new logo highlights an attempt to give Swamp Thing a new image and move the character away somewhat from its classic horror roots.
More superhero action in the final issue as Swamp Thing is really only seen either as a statue or a memory. Alec Holland a new love interest are up against Thrudvang, a new baddie and it takes some old fashioned ingenuity to survive. The next issue is scheduled to guest-star Hawkman, but it never came out. This final issue was written by David Anthony Kraft from a Conway plot and the art was supplied by Ernie Chan and Fred Carrillo.
But if you get this volume you get what's left of the next issue. It was not completed because of the abrupt axe dropping on the series, but it was scripted by Kraft and fully penciled Chan and partially inked by Carrillo. All of that is included and it's possible see what was on tap for Swamp Thing. For one thing, Swampy was now able to transition between his Swamp Thing and Alec Holland forms, making more akin to the Hulk. Hawkman is tricked into fighting the Swamp Thing and actually loses. Sabre is back but we'll never see what happens.
We are treated now to four issues of
Challengers of the Unknown in which the Challs cross into Swamp Thing territory, specifically the Pennsylvania town in which the alien threat of M'Nagala is alive and threatening the whole world. M'Nagala had first shown up in
Swamp Thing #8 and while the threat was stalled it was clear that it was not stopped. Now we see the results of that when Prof is infected by the alien fungus. Weirdly both Swamp Thing and Deadman are drawn into the adventure which eventually finds an ending if not a particularly happy one. The end result is that Swamp Thing is invited to hang with the Challengers and Deadman chooses to do so even though they are not aware of his existence.
Next is a Challengers trilogy that sees the death-defying team trek to the far future when ferocious monsters start to pop up all over the world, sent from the future for a reason no one knows. Swamp Thing goes with the team along with Deadman to find and rescue Rip Hunter the Time Master who himself has fallen under the sway of the cruel leaders of the future Earth. There is an uprising and the Challs along with Swampy do their best to help it out before returning to the present day and unfortunately cancellation. Swamp Thing is again homeless. These Challenger stories were written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Michael Nasser and later by an up and coming Keith Giffen.
Old pro Murphy Anderson is on hand to do the art chores on
DC Presents #8 which has Superman confront the menace of Solomon Grundy who appears to have come up with a way to make endless duplicates of himself. Swamp Thing runs afoul of the Man of Steel when he seeks Grundy out for his own purposes given that they both are products of the swamp. This story was written by Steve Englehart.
Marty Pasko is the scribe for the final entry in this collection, a
The Brave and the Bold tale drawn by Jim Aparo. Batman chases down a woman who has escaped from prison before she can be killed by her old mates who pulled off a robbery with her. Swamp Thing gets involved, but it 's a close thing and tragedy is spread all around. And tragedy will be the order of the day when Pasko joins artist Tom Yeates on a revival of the Swamp Thing's own comic, but that's for next week when the Dojo features volume three of
Swamp Thing - The Bronze Age. Tomorrow kicks off a detailed look a volume one.
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