Saga Of The Swamp Thing - Book Six!

In the sixth and final volume of Saga of the Swamp Thing as written by Alan Moore things really get wild. As the saga begins Abigail has been rescued from her legal problems and allowed to go home, but it's a home without Swamp Thing who was seemingly killed in the war with Gotham City. Actually he'd been disconnected from Earth but found a somewhat safe haven in the depths of space on a blue world, a world of isolation which proved eventually not to sufficiently satisfactory and so he took a gamble and sent his essence off into space once again. 

Where he landed was Rann, the very same Rann so often visited by Adam Strange by means of the Zeta Beam during the Silver Age of comics in the pages of Mysteries in Space. In this two-part tale by the team of Moore and new regular art duo Rick Veitch and Alfredo Alcala we meet Adam Strange once again as he gets to Rann only to find a "monster" to fight as he so often did in the form of Swamp Thing (now red as per the sparse vegetation of Rann). Also on hand are two Hawk soldiers from Thanagar who are negotiating with Rann for technology to help with their scarcity issues in exhanged for Zeta Beam tech. Turns out not everyone has pure motives and before long Swampy and Strange are battling the Hawks for their very survival. Moore plays around with language in these issues also giving the reader the language of Rann untranslated which seemed somewhat daft to me. 

The next issue is a real change of pace with Stephen Bissette returning to write the story which reintroduces the Patchwork Man from the original Wein and Wrightson run on the series so long before. He's Abigail's father as we learned in that story and now his memories of her have resurfaced to some degree. His body is deteriorating but his reunion with his daughter is touching for them and for the reader as well. 

I'm going to say up front that I did not much like Swamp Thing #60 but I did appreciate the experimentation. I just don't think it worked very well. The art on this one was done by John Totleben and he used collage and other such techniques to try to illustrate an alien technological world and being, one which the Swamp Thing comes into contact with on his peripatetic journey across deep space. I frankly read this one twice and I just couldn't make it out. Not helpful was Moore's text which was over wrought and seemed written more for sound than sense, very poetical but to my eyes at least rather obscure. 

Much more to my liking was the next issue which had the Swamp Thing land on a world of sentient vegetation, so that when he tried to infuse his intellect into it he was in fact displacing and abusing the people of the world referred to only as "J586". I assume that's the designation for the Green Lanterns as this world is lucky enough to have one who helps eventually to separate Swamp Thing from the sundry folks he has possessed. That possession is not without consequence to some of the inhabitants as for a short time they shared a consciousness and that sharing resulted in too much information for some. 

Rick Veitch takes a stab at writing as he and his inker Alfredo Alcala work to present Swamp Thing's encounter with the New Gods, in particular Metron. It's a very trippy issue as most of them have been as the series recently. Swamp Thing works in tandem with Metron to attempt to penetrate the Source and for a time they think they have done. They are disabused of this notion by Darkseid who is interested in what motivates the Swamp Thing on this odyssey across the stars. He does learn and as usual uses that information to help his strategies for the future. Swamp Thing is allowed to continue his journey. 

In the penultimate Alan Moore issue Swamp Thing at last comes to Earth. Chester Williams, the hippie who had turned on a few folks to the magic of the weird yams that sometimes tumbled to the ground from Swamp Thing is a mainstay in the strip now, helping Abigail get her focus back with some environmental work and in this issue meeting Liz Tremayne, still recovering from her captivity with Barclay for the first time. As we encounter old cast members, some of the men responsible for planning and attempting to execute Swamp Thing end up dead in a number of strange ways, all having to do with plants. We sense that Swampy is back even before we see him. 

The last Moore issue is illustrated by three artists -- Tom Yeates, Rick Veitch and Stephen Bissette. Alredo Alcala binds the styles together with his lush pen. The story deals with the reunion of Abigail and Swamp Thing as they bond together in a number of ways and share what they've learned in their forced separation. Swamp Thing is debating whether to use the enormous powers he has to help stop hunger in the world at large. His answer to this dilemma is drawn from his time with Parliament of Trees and he understands that his role in the world is not to save it from itself really. All the time this is unfolding we meet a strangely familiar fellow named "La Bostrie" who is poling a canoe into the story yet takes no part in it. Moore writes himself out of Swamp Thing almost literally as Swamp Thing and Abigail are shown at peace at last. The cover by John Totleben sums up the mood of the story quite well. 

Overall these are very very weird stories and to my mind Moore and at times the artist indulge themselves at the detriment of the clarity of the storytelling. Moore's writing throughout this volume is loquacious to a fault and at times I frankly can't make out what he means. It's intended to be poetic, but it sadly becomes pedantic. More Moore is not better than less Moore when it comes to to Swamp Thing at the very least. That wraps up my look at Swamp Thing. I've read nearly a hundred Swamp Thing stories by a range of very talented folks and it's a saga I'm glad I finally undertook, if it was perhaps several decades late. It's back to Berni Wrightson and Frankenstein this week as Halloween approaches and other things that go bump in the night as well. 

Rip Off

Saga Of The Swamp Thing - Book Five!

After the long war to save the world from evil designs of the Brujalia, Swamp Thing is at last free to return home to his mucky home and to the arms of Abigail. But he doesn't know that she has been drawn into much trouble because of the dimwitted notions of fools who think it is their right to protect all society from folks who are different from them. Alan Moore is gearing up for some of his most innovative and challenging stories in the series so far. For the record while he has quit doing stories for the time being, Stephen Bissette is still supplying covers for the series. 

Th first issue in this volume is a transitional one in which Swamp Thing leaves behind his allies Deadman and Phantom Stranger and Constantine to return to his swamp home. Meanwhile Abby is freed on bail but she loses her job and many of those whom she had grown close to. After some reflection she jumps bail and heads to a city where she can be anonymous -- Gotham City. That plan backfires when she is innocently swept up in a police operation to curb prostitution. Her identity is learned quickly enough and she becomes even more of a perceived criminal. 

With Rick Veitch and Alfredo Alcala handling the art the book looks great as Swamp Thing speeds to Gotham City to free Abigail from those who hold her. He very quickly and robustly makes his demands known to the powers that be, free Abigial Arcane Cable or suffer a war with Swamp Thing. He begins his war by starting a plant uprising in the city while Lex Luthor is brought in to combat him. Also showing up is a certain Darknight Detective. 

In a giant-size issue drawn by John Totleben the war between Swamp Thing and the city of Gotham rages in all sorts of weird and unexpected ways as the Swamp Thing showcases his new-found might to threaten the city as a giant and as the source of all manner of plagues. Batman tries to negotiate and battle the Swamp Thing but as Gotham becomes overwhelmed by vegetation it's clear that the city is losing. So finally Batman is able to convince the officials of Gotham that Abby's so-called crimes are anything but and she not only must be freed but should be freed. And as they celebrate her release Luthor's plan is put into effect. Swamp Thing is burned up and seems to die. 

With Swamp Thing's seeming demise Abby goes home to grieve but finds Liz Tremayne on her doorstep. Veitch and Alcala are back on the art in this story which shines a light on two characters who have been missing for quite some time. It seems that Dennis Barclay has been keeping Tremayne mostly a captive, depriving her of information and slowly chiseling away at her confidence until she has become his weakened pet. Barclay finds that Liz has found the strength to escape him and takes a gun to get her back. This is a pretty tough one and while I have no trouble buying Barclay in his role as persecutor as it jibes well with his earlier presentations by Pasko, Tremayne as his victim seems a bit of a hard fit. Certainly it can happen I guess, but she seems an unlikely victim of such crime. I'm not at all sure Moore convinces me on that score. 

Moore gives us Swamp Thing's funeral of sorts in the next issue as Abby continues to mourn. Weirdly Gotham City creates a monument to the mucky hero, though that seems a bit off-note as well given the immediacy of his attack on the city. Also Abby's reputation seems to have been healed rather quickly as well. One of the truths of such accusations as she faced is that despite their legitimacy they smear an individual regardless. While all this going on we learn that Swamp Thing is far from dead, just very far away on a another planet, one that is blue. 

Lex Luthor's plan had been to sever Swamp Thing's connection to Earth and then burn him with napalm. That worked but Swamp Thing in desperation is able to find a place to regrow himself in distant space on a world where there is no green, only blue. In a story which reminded me of Ray Bradbury's stuff, we follow Swamp Thing as he attempts to stay sane by fabricating various activities and even pseudo-people to help him pass the time. It's not ultimately successful and he eventually realizes he must get back to Earth. His journey back will the focus of the next and final volume of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing stories. 

Rip Off

 

Saga Of The Swamp Thing - Book Four!

In this fourth volume of Saga of the Swamp Thing the grand scheme that Swamp Thing has been battling with the guidance of John Constantine comes to a vigorous climax. Also the Swamp Thing does his bit in the sprawling universe altering event known as Crisis on Infinite Earths. That's the cosmic stuff but on the home front Abigail must confront a threat of another kind. 

With artwork by Stan Woch and Ron Randall, Alan Moore fabricates a very curious story in which some of Swamp Thing's "fruit" is discovered by a hippie drug dealer named Chester Williams. He's reluctant to bite into this unknown tuber but a woman who is dying and an addict who is less scrupulous are not. The effects of their tasting this "forbidden fruit" are quite different and quire remarkable. 

Swamp Thing must battle the "Bogey Man", a serial killer who imagines himself to be part of some grand mythic pantheon of night dwellers. We see much of his story though the killer's eyes and we are there when the scales fall from them and he must confront the truth of what he truly is. 

This issue is all about ghosts, particularly ghosts who have been killed in some or other by a particular type of rifle. In the sprawling abandoned house of the family who manufactured the weapons, two couples find themselves up against threats they could hardly imagine. Not all of them survive and those who do have Swamp Thing to thank, though they hardly see it that way. 

The forty-sixth issue finds Swamp Thing along with John Constantine aboard the Monitor's orbiting spaceship along with just about every other DC hero of the era. We get a view of this grand assembly from Swampy's point of view as he is not actually quite sure why is there. Nonetheless he does his bit to battle against time lost creatures and save time lost people. He also learns for the first time from Constantine of the "Brujeria", a South American all-male death cult who have been the cause of many of the menaces Swamp Thing has struggled against in his time since learning of his true nature. 

The forty-seventh issue of Swamp Thing is easily the best in this volume. It's the totally awesome first encounter by Swamp Thing with his wooden kin the "Parliament of Trees". Located in the lushness of the Amazon all the "swamp things" which have been are assembled in a grove. They have mostly lost the power of movement and most have lost the ability to communicate in any manner one would describe as traditional. They have taken root among their peers and simply are. Their fundamental notions about the world at large and their extreme long view come in handy later for Swamp Thing who is properly in awe of what they are and what he will become. Among this group is Alex Olsen from the original Swamp Thing story in The House of Secrets. Also recognizably on hand is The Heap and if you  squint just right you might be able to see Man-Thing as well. On the downside of things the romance between Swampy and Abigail has been photographed and that will prove traumatic for her. Stan Woch and Ron Randall handle the art. 

Swamp Thing is in full command of his powers when he and Constantine and what remains of Constantine's team strike at the Brujeria. Things do not go as planned when a traitor is revealed and despite Swamp Things potent talents the threat which has so concerned Constantine is about to be summoned. This is an issue drawn  completely by John Totleben and it's lush, though truth told it's a very hard story to tell visually for any artist. Abigail is arrested. 

With the menace on the way, Constantine assembles a team of mystics such as Sargon, Zatara, Zatanna, Dr.Occult, as well as former Doom Patrol sidekick Mento  to confront the enemy on this side of things while Swamp Thing is joined by Deadman, Phantom Stranger, the Demon and possibly the Spectre to fight on the frontlines with other assorted magical beings. It's quite a muster to face against a threat which is still little understood or frankly understandable. Stan Woch is back and joined by Alfredo Alcala on the artwork. 

Stephen Bissette is back with partner Totleben and newcomer Rick Veitch to wind up this long Swamp Thing saga. This is Bissette's farewell to the character and as much as I want to thoroughly enjoy this wild and action-filled finale it's difficult because the inchoate nature of the threat makes the visuals hard. The assembled heroes and otherwise are up against darkness, a darkness which is reluctant to be seen in its entirety until the very end. It's hard to draw that which cannot be seen. The battles are rough and tumble and some vintage DC favorites don't survive. It will some as no surprise that Swamp Thing's journey has prepared him to perhaps save the day, if such a thing is possible. Cain and Abel show up to add a little light-hearted mayhem to the darkness. And that's a wrap on a saga which guess has been dubbed "American Gothic" save for a one more issue in the next volume that winds it all down. There's no time for Abigail's troubles this issue but she will be front and center next time. 

Rip Off

Swamp Classics - The Leviathan Conspiracy!

The original run of Swamp Thing rumbles along for several more issues, but in many ways the thirteenth issue of the classic comic can be seen as the last of the original concept because it marks the final one done by one of the original creators. Len Wein steps away from his Swamp Thing after writing an issue which appears to want to tidy things up, a bit anyway.

The story begins as Matt Cable, Bolt and other men glide in a power boat through the swamps looking for Swamp Thing who is at the same time battling against mutant creatures which seem to increasingly populate his native swamp. He is reflecting on these weird beasties when Cable and his crew find and subdue Swamp Thing whisking him off to Washington D.C. where Swamp Thing is imprisoned in a laboratory habitat under the scrutiny of one Professor Coolidge Degrez despite Cable's objections. Swamp Thing escapes and Degrez is killed by guards trying to stop Swamp Thing. He is recaptured under the orders of Commander John Zero who eventually gives Cable permission to try and communicate (at long last) with Swamp Thing. Cable does and eventually and painfully Swamp Thing reveals finally that he is Alec Holland and describes how he came to be the Swamp Thing. Cable and Abigail Arcane decide they will work to free the Swamp Thing but are almost stopped by Bolt, still seething with rage. Cable talks  him down and convinces ultimately to help them get the Swamp Thing out of the lab. The scene then cuts to the funeral of Professor Degrez and as the mourners leave the grave begins to rumble as Swamp Thing climbs up out of the earth. Cable had hidden him inside the coffin underneath Degrez and elude detection. Now that he is alone Swamp Thing finds his grave alongside that of his wife Linda and realizes painfully that the life he had hoped to return to is lost forever. He turns his back on Cable and Abigail and chooses instead to shamble into the swamps where he feels more at home.

You do get the sense that Len Wein wanted to tie up some threads in this story and to some extent he does by finally having Cable learn the secret he's chased for nearly two years. The fact that Alec Holland is Swamp Thing is a secret only the reader had known, but which going forward would be an aspect of the story open to others. It does somewhat shift the tone of the story from tragedy to one of mere sympathy, though it does open plot possibilities. For one, I'm glad it happened as Cable's ongoing quest was one of the few things which fueled the preceding issues. Also the fact that for now Swamp Thing has relented and no longer seeks to return to his former life as Alec Holland likewise winds up the saga, at least in  this early stage.

This issue was a hodge-podge of details, again more of a sci-fi outing than having much to do with horror. I find the naming of the characters fun in this one with "Coolidge Degrez" and "John Zero" both suggestive, particularly since they use extreme cold to trap and control the Swamp Thing. I guess this has thematic implications, counterpointed with the vital boggy nature of Swamp Thing himself, but it feels undeveloped here at best.

I did love that the totally awesome Nestor Redondo cover image of Swamp Thing erupting from a grave was not merely symbolic, though the idea he was squished into a coffin alongside a full-grown man seems speculative at best. Some plot devices work and some fall short. This one seemed  a bit half-baked despite its decidedly horrific power.

I appreciate the final sequence with Swamp Thing shambling off into the wilderness of his swamp, the one place he spent most of the early issues returning to and which has become a haven of sorts now. It brings a reasonable closure to the saga in this first stage.

Rip Off

Swamp Classics - The Eternity Man!

Often Swamp Thing can seem like a bystander in his own comic. That's certainly not the case with the twelfth issue of the character's original run by Len Wein and Nestor Redondo.

The story begins where the last issue left off, with a time lost Swamp Thing face to face with a prehistoric Tyrannosaurus Rex-like dinosaur.  He fends it off but is helped by an anachronistic caveman who attacks the beast and between the two of them the brute is killed. But the caveman too is killed and expires as two purple lights gleam in his eyes, purple lights similar to a great jewel which might responsible for transporting the Swamp Thing through time. Swamp Thing beings to fade as the caveman recovers and grabs the large jewel. A series of interludes finds Matt Cable trying to recruit Bolt to work with him to find the Swamp Thing; Bolt finally agrees despite his inexplicable anger towards Swamp Thing over Ruth's death. Swamp Thing finds himself transported to ancient Rome and ends up in the arena battling gladiators and lions. One gladiator who fights with him seems blind until he is killed and reveals the same odd purple gleam as the caveman. After Swamp Thing disappears this time the warrior rises and wanders off. Swamp Thing ends up in the Middle Ages in Europe during the Black Plague years and finds a man named Milo and a witch. Swamp Thing learns that Milo has stolen a great purple gem from her which gives him eternal life but she places a curse on him that he will become trapped in a never ending cycle of death and rebirth through time. Soon enough Swamp Thing is transported to American swamps he came from but during the Civil War where he encounters the man with the purple eyes who dies yet again. Then we at last return to the present where the man who was Milo confronts Swamp Thing to kill him since being killed by a friend is the only release from the curse, but Swamp Thing refuses. The man is killed when he falls into quicksand, doomed to begin his journey through time again and again. But Swamp Thing merely wanders off.

This is a densely plotted story and the connection between Milo and Swamp Thing isn't really explained all that well, but it does serve to put the Swamp Thing in some really intriguing scenarios. Seeing him battle a dinosaur was really fun. Despite that, the story does shamble a bit before it stumbles to a conclusion. Maybe this was intentional given the theme an endless time loop, but the story seems merely to stop and not end.

It's refreshing to see Cable at long last give up his hatred of Swamp Thing if not his search. The replacement of Cable with Bolt who hates our hero is odd, almost as if the fundamental scenario of the series requires someone to hate Swamp Thing irrationally.

The sci-fi elements of the character are again fully explored but once again at the cost of the classic horror touches which informed the Wrightson era. I respect and admire the work of Redondo in this issue, but his Swamp Thing while nicely rendered lacks the weird punch of Wrightson's rendition.

One more issue for Wein and one more for me as "Mucking About" heads to a conclusion.

Rip Off

Swamp Classics - The Conqueror Worms!

With its eleventh issue Swamp Thing trudges into new territory, at least in terms of creative input. This issue features the debut of Nestor Redondo as the artist and sports a very atmospheric cover by Luis Dominguez. The cover is a dandy if the Swamp Thing himself were a bit more on model. He seems too like Marvel's Man-Thing here and not the somewhat more heroic figure that Swampy traditionally cuts.

The story begins in the swamp where Swamp Thing muses about his lost opportunity to save himself now that his lab is utterly destroyed by the spaceship which launched from within it a few issues previously. Just then Matt Cable and Abigail Arcane arrive with the new mission to find the Swamp Thing and uncover his mysterious connection to the death of the Hollands. Cable has finally shaken off his hatred of Swamp Thing. Soon though the pair are attacked by a mutant alligator which Swamp Thing shows up in time to battle. Meanwhile two giant hideous worm creatures capture Cable and Arcane and drag them back to a mysterious sealed laboratory beneath the swamps. They meet four other captives -- an old man named Luke, a mute sheriff named Kain, and a young black couple called Bolt and Ruth. All it seems are being held by a madman named Zachary Nail who built his lab as a defense against a polluted world. Nail battled Dr.Thirteen previously in the pages of The Phantom Stranger and was defeated. He was found and nursed back to relative health by the giant worms who he imagines want to accomplish the same things he does. Swamp Thing meanwhile finds the lab and enters to find and save Cable and Arcane yet again. It's then revealed that the worms don't want to save the world or mankind save to keep them as livestock to be consumed. This revelation drives Nail over the edge and in his maniacal frustration he shoots and kills Ruth before activating the lab's self-destruct sequence. Swamp Thing arrives to help the people escape and stops Bolt from killing Nail. All the survivors leave the exploding lab, but Swamp Thing disappears having found a mysterious purple jewel which transports him back into time to face a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Redondo's lush artwork is a good replacement for Wrightson's moody work. That said, there is a loss of the classic horror feel the comic had developed and a turn toward a more straight-forward science fiction adventure. The characters are more traditionally handsome than before in the hands of Berni who is magnificent at creating slightly odd human beings.

Neal Adams

The story too, despite being written by Wein has a more pure sci-fi feel to it. The appearance of a character from another yarn he'd created and written for the fourteenth Phantom Stranger draws Swamp Thing more tightly into DC's continuity which in a way is good I guess in the long run, but does somewhat undermine again the isolated horror vibe the book had generated to this point. Despite the appearance of Batman earlier, the series seemed to take place in a whole other world, a world more akin to that of the Universal monster flicks than the universe of Superman.

There also seem to be too many characters in this one. Luke and Kain add almost nothing to the story but are there right along. The death of Ruth is shocking and does set up a future storyline with Bolt, but seemed in the final analysis a bit gratuitous. Wein clearly wants to pivot the series at this juncture, but it's not at all clear to me what he is aiming to do with that change of direction.

Maybe next issue will say more.

Rip Off

Swamp Classics - The Man Who Would Not Die!

The tenth issue of Swamp Thing is momentous because it is Berni Wrightson's last on the series. Wrightson had developed a reputation on small horror stories around the industry, but it was Swamp Thing which still defines his career. Not unlike Wrightson's The Studio mate Barry Windsor-Smith who stepped away from Conan the Barbarian, Wrightson too seemed to want to distance himself from his signature work at the peak of his influence. They say you should always leave making the audience want more and Berni sure did that with Swamp Thing. The final issue in fact gives him a plotting credit in addition to his regular art credit.

The story begins in the swamp where Swamp Thing runs across an escaped prisoner threatening an old black woman named Auntie Bellum and saves her.  The escaped convict soon enough dies of bullet wounds and Auntie takes the moment to tell Swamp Thing a story. Her corncob pipe clenched in her aged teeth, she relates the saga of slavemaster Samson Parminter who tormented his slaves and took special notice of a beautiful slave named Elsbeth. Elsbeth though was the love of a powerful slave named Black Jubal who despite having only one arm battled Parminter though it cost him his life. Parminter returned to his evil ways but was then found torn limb from limb in his home soon after. Auntie's story ends when Swamp Thing is distracted by odd figures running in the swamp, odd but familiar. He follows them into a graveyard where he finds his old  enemy Arcane surrounded by his Un-Men, but this time Arcane wears the misshapen form his loyal followers built for him when they took him barely living from the cliff he seemingly died on in the second issue. Then Arcane and his Un-Men began to search for Swamp Thing, following him back to his swamp even if that meant swimming across the Atlantic Ocean. Arcane still wants to take possession of Swamp Thing's body. Arcane and Swamp Thing fight, but Arcane wins. But at that moment the graveyard itself seems to buzz with strange activity and ghostly figures of slaves led by Black Jubal rise and defeat Arcane and his Un-Men. Swamp Thing recovers and finds new headstones, one each for the Un-Men and one in particular for Arcane. He shuffles out of the graveyard no noticing another grave with the name "Elsbeth Bellum". He convinces himself it was all a dream as he stumbles away but also fails to notice a corncob pipe snap beneath his mossy feet.

Once again we are presented with a parable of sorts. The saga of old Southern slavery is counterpointed with Arcane's malignant desire to convert Swamp Thing's body to his use. Where Parminter beat his slaves into compliance, Arcane has fashioned and built his own small army of slaves in his Un-Men.

This is really a classic ghost story with Swamp Thing tumbling from situation to situation. There's enough evidence to convince us, the readers this is real, as real as anything Swamp Thing has confronted, but he seems oddly reluctant to give into this belief in spirits.

There is another curious clash here of the occult and the scientific as Swamp Thing confronts the scientist-sorcerer who first battled him so long ago in the early days of the series.

Part of me feels there's maybe just a smidgeon too many elements in this story, and they fight for prominence. But the upshot is neatly handled and it does seem sad that Swamp Thing's changed circumstance doesn't seem always to give him a keener understanding of what is happening to him. It does make him more identifiable for the reader I will say.

This is Wrightson's final stroke on the character. This is as far as I've ever read in this vintage series. For me it will be all new going forward. I've been waiting a long long time to read about those worms pictured in the final panel. Next time should do it.

Rip Off