Marval Movie

"There's so much beauty in the swamp if you just open up your eyes to it"
-Alec Holland, Swamp Thing the movie

In 1971 in DC comics House of Secrets issue 92 we saw the first appearance of Len Wein's creation The Swamp Thing. It was a horror story about a scientist that had an unfortunate accident and got turned into a walking pile of moss, roots, and plants.  He then got his own series that ran for 24 issues from 1972 to 1976 before it was canceled due to poor sales.

The plot was basic, a scientist named Alec Holland who was experimenting with growing plant chemicals of some sort and after the evil scientist Arcane with his thugs start trouble in his lab, Alec makes an enemy.  They strap a bomb to the bottom of his desk and before he can get out in time it explodes and along with the chemicals sets Holland on fire and in his panic runs into the swamp, surely he's dead?  No Alec survives but at a cost, he emerges with every part of this body merged with the swamp so now he has wooden bones, moss skin etc. Alec vows to find a cure so that he can reclaim his humanity, along the way he must battle Dr. Arcane's evil gang of Un-men (evil mutants all with different powers) and save Arcane's niece Abby, the spirited white hared damsel in distress that is traditional for these stories.  

The reason for its cancellation is no surprise, the story and set up are pretty generic especially for the nineteen seventy's, plus there were already about four other identical comic characters going on at the same time.  The concept just brought nothing new or unique to the formula.

But in 1982 Director Wes Craven brought the big green giant to the big screen with Swamp Thing the movie, the film was a reasonable success and so DC decided to bring Swamp Thing back to the comic shelves with his new series Saga of the Swamp Thing this also received poor sales that only amounted to about 30,000 a month  and writer Len Wein had about five other writing obligations so a decision would be made that would change comic books forever.

Len Wein chose Alan Moore to take over as the writer of the series of Swamp Thing. Moore had gained some reputation in Britain as an Eagle award-winning writer for such comics as Marvel-Man and Captain Britain and so Len gave him a call and after it was clarified that this was really DC and not one of Moores friends playing a prank on him he accepted the job.

Alan Moore's name is common for any decent fan of comics, he has given the world some of the best comics such as Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentleman among others.  He takes his writing seriously and does not play to kids, he sees comic books as a serious art-form that can be written for an adult audience.  He likes to take the world of the superheroes and bring them into our world, he wants to ground them, humanize them and give them more obvious human flaws to make them more relate-able.  He has always been a fan of comic books but also a fan of classic literature like William Blake this leads to Moore delivering serious and sophisticated stories told within the medium of comics.  He had accepted the job and the six foot four hairy giant form Northampton was on his way to America, god help them.

Moore never liked the original premise of Swamp Thing, he said that "as soon as he finds a cure the book ends", so Moore brought in some radical changes to the character starting with his first issue Saga of the Swamp Thing issue 20.

The cover has Swamp thing as we know him being burned and shot by a platoon of uniformed men.  The men and helicopters are above the Swamp Thing while the Swamp Thing himself is in the lower part of the page in a running and defending position as the last run for survival, like a deer running from a hunter.  As the issue is read it also can be interpreted as the ending of the creature.

Moore's first issue starts off after a big fight that has happened between him and his arch-rival Arcane, he works through the wreckage just to see the body and be sure he is dead, he is.  Meanwhile the military move in on Swamp Thing while we read Swamp Things thoughts like a diary entry.  The thoughts are somber and poetic like a creature that knows that its time has ended and as the issue ends Swamp Thing is shot in the head and the Military confiscates his body for study.  This would have been a good end to the Swamp Thing legend but this issue was really a farewell to the Len Wein structure of The Swamp Thing, Alan Moore's had just began.

In Issue 21 Swamp Thing is hardly in it except for a corpse.  The government brings in Dr Woodrue to examine the body, during this autopsy he discovers something strange, the pieces that should be mutated human organs couldn't be.  What then unfolds with a thick air of suspense is the reveal that this creature was never Alec Holland instead the chemicals that he was working on had absorbed the properties of the swamp and while eating away at his corpse had acquired his memories, so the whole time he had only had delusions of humanity.  The issue ends with Swamp Thing awakening from his frozen coma and killing the man in-charge of the complex and escapes into the swamp.

This was the first time that I had read a comic and had genuinely felt a shiver go up my spine there was a genuine sense of something scary and sinister happening in the air.

In his first two issues, Moore had completely reinvented the character and given a new and more unique direction to go and would eventually raise the comics sales to 300,000 per month.  The following issue we follow Abby Cable (Arcane's niece) and her husband discovering Swamp Thing rooted into the Swamp itself and is unreachable by normal means.  Meanwhile, Woodrue is using a sample of Swamp Thing to enhance his own plant powers.  Abby visits him regularly and seems to be more interested in him than her own husband.  After a while Woodrue cracks the code of the Swamp Things DNA and gains control over the plants declaring himself lord of the plants and that he will overrun the whole world with plants, meanwhile Abby begs for Swamp Thing to save them.

An interesting note to make is that in this story arc the Justice League are portrayed as an ill-effective government that spends all its time debating and arguing rather than getting the job done.  Once Swamp Thing gets uprooted he confronts Woodrue and makes him realize the big fault in his plan, if there are no humans or animals then what will give the plants the carbon dioxide they need to survive.  With this realization, Woodrue has a breakdown and quietly gets taken to Arkham where he belongs.  Swamp Thing then wanders off into the swamp coming to grips with what he now is and looks at the living breathing swamp area around him and saying "I want to walk here forever.  I want, to struggle, with the alligators, turning over, and over, in the mud, I want to, be alive".  Thus officially begins Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing with a whole new direction and approach to the character and new story possibilities that would last forty-four issues.

The art of Swamp Thing is supplied by Stephen Bissette and John Tolben and they must have been passionate about the scripts that Alan Moore was giving them because they add all kinds of graphic details that make the series a joy to look at.  They invoke the old horror comics with the dramatic faces and line shading but there's also a unique detail that makes the work all there's.  I look at each glorious page of Swamp Thing and it shocks me that everyone has heard of Neal Adams, Frank Miller, George Perez and Dave Gibbons but these shamefully go underrated.  

In issue 26 we get a brilliant story of Abby getting a job at a children's center for disturbed children.  There is one child there that has been having bad dreams and been drawing some pretty horrific stuff, meanwhile, a mysterious red-haired stranger with a streak of grey appears in town, he seems to have a sixth sense about stuff even predicting how people will die.  This stranger introduces himself to Abby as Jason Blood and tells her that a real demon is attached to the child, Abby doesn't trust him so she goes to Swamp Thing, they go to help the boy but the monkey king that is possessing him is already so powerful. Meanwhile also on the scene is Bloods alter ego Etrigan the Demon.  Moore made an interesting decision to make Etrigan speak in Rhyme,  this is the best way to handle the character, it makes him classy and sophisticated.  So Swamp Thing and Etrigan have a bit of a fight, then the Monkey King gets beaten and we learn when you make a deal with a demon the demon always benefits.

The character of Swamp Thing himself is fascinating because he himself is an extension of nature itself and as the book goes on he gains even more powers.  He isn't Alec Holland but he did gain his memories so he does have a human feel to him but there is also something deep, his speech bubbles have a three dot gap between nearly every three words and their colored orange instead of white like traditionally and its described as being low.  We also get a glimpse of what it might be like to be an actual force of nature Swamp Thing wanders through the swamp and narrates whats happening "a bird has just died, an egg of spiders has just hacked, the alligators are wrestling" as if its all connected.

In an annual Swamp Thing issue it has Swamp Thing go to hell to rescue Abby's soul in a big ninety-page epic.  The cover has Swamp Thing centralized standing cautiously on top of an arch horde of corpses, Swamp Thing stands as if on the edge of a cliff, getting ready to jump. Around him are the other characters and in the background, the Spectre is more woven into the background as if more than a supporting character but an omnipresent being. The main appeal of this issue is that it features Phantom Stranger, Dead-Man, Etrigan and The Spectre all in one.  Also, Hell is depicted more dark and gruesome than any other version I've ever seen, it's not a fire and brimstone we get a unique view that is more scary and surreal than any other.

An issue with a milestone which bares significance for the Swamp Thing character is issue 28.  Swamp Thing is being haunted by the ghost of Alec Holland and cannot rest until he is given a proper burial.  Swamp Thing then finds Hollands skeleton and buries it, later when he meats up with Abby and he tells her that he would be honored to be called Alec Holland.  The issue's cover has the Swamp Thing holding a skeleton in classic DC death pose with dripping water running down invoking the feeling of tears.  

Issue 34 has Abby confessing her love for Alec.  The cover has the two embracing each other torso-deep in the swamp itself with the two smiling, it invokes a caring sweet feeling of the two being together in a environment full of life.  Abby comes to realize that she is in love with Alec and tells him, he is startled at first but then says that he has feelings for her.  But the persoalan still remains that he cannot satisfy her sexually, yes they bring that up. Abby says it doesn't matter but Alec thinks he has a solution, he picks off one of the potatoes (I think that's what it is) off his back and gives it to Abby.  Abby takes a bite out of it with caution and then takes a psychedelic trip into what Alec sees (if he wants to). This is one of the most unique comics I've read, when the effects starts to set in the panels literally rotate and you have to turn the comic on its side.  You don't need drugs if you've read this issue.  After  what is essentially an LSD trip Alec and Abby unite their hands and unofficially get married in the swamp.

The most important thing about Swamp Thing is that it is so purely a comic, the way the story is told can only be done with comic books and would be impossible to translate into film.  If you've seen Alan Moore's work from Watchmen onwards he has more of a Ditko page layout (9 panel layout) but here is work like no other, the panels shift and shape and drift into one another and this kept me on my toes as a reader, but it also serves as an example as to the story methods that only comics can give, the less creative writers would make the panels to resemble widescreen, like the ratio on films and then they will just be comics intimidating films.  Films are films, comics are comics they can only be great when they fully embrace what makes each of them great, a comic can be great by the use of surreal off beat panels and full-page spreads and Swamp Thing has this in spades.

Issue 35 starts with a crazed guy recovering from a hangover and then wanders through the Swamp, he is disoriented and keeps referring to everyone as Ed. He stumbles around with pieces of newspapers flying through the swamp, the newspapers read of incidents of actual nuclear power plant incidents from protesters to desert towns gathering together and watching the mushroom clouds while having picnics. By the ends of the story we have the strange man with a melting face encounter Swamp Thing and he offers him a drink of beer, which turns out not to be beer but toxic waste, which he now needs to sustain himself and it burns right through Swamp Thing and he starts to die.  Finally, the stranger walks off saying that he needs to find more toxic waste "Don't care if I gotta look, in every state, every town...every street, Damn! Heads up America...HERE I COME!"

The next issue Abby finds Swamp Thing lying down getting eaten away by the toxic waste saying that this body is doomed but he has an idea.  Swamp Thing will send his mind to other plants.  This is an example of the genius that is Alan Moore, his ability to think about a subject and what that would imply and where it could be taken.  Swamp Things plan does work and he sprouts as a tiny bud in the swamp.  This also adds a sweet touch of having Abby garden him back to full size and is a look at their committed relationship.

Each issue of Swamp Thing uses the regular Alan Moore formula of having the big dark narration that narrates the situation with a dark tone that puts the reader back in their seat in awe.  The stories follow a more poetic flow rather than traditional three-act TV shows or movies.  Comics are more artistic than the traditional forms of media, they flow more like songs than traditional narrative, they have their theme and have a chorus that they can repeat throughout it and then ends on the same note with something just a little different.  Moore also is never limited by just the traditional twenty two page limit that most comics are meant to be, most of the comics go into the thirty's if they have to so that Moore can deliver the full effect of what he's trying to say.

After Swamp Thing grows to his regular full size another stranger appears by the name John Constantine and tells him he has information on his true nature and will reveal it if Swamp Thing helps him with a few problems.  Swamp Thing agrees with the use of his newly discovered teleportation powers he not only works in the same swamp but can move all across America.  In these issues Swamp Thing tackles enemies like Vampires and Werewolves with a new twist as well as being handled quite chillingly, he also tackles racism and abuse stories. These are some of the best stories in the series.

The height of Swamp Thing comes in issue fifty, another ninety-page giant.  The cover consists of Swamp Thing along with others riding bizarre creatures that resemble insects, and the figures are riding towards the reader like warriors on a march to face a threat.  Swamp Thing along with his companions must fight off "the evil" not some powerful demon, not the devil, evil itself.  This is technically a silly idea as something a child might come up with but it is handled with such sincerity that I forgot all that and really feel that the characters are really going up against the source of all evil.  It is one of the most...I don't even want to say comics because it's so much more than that, it is one of the most epic experiences that I have ever had and by the end, my mind had blown a fuse.

I'm sure that Moore kept up with the DC comics even before he started writing Swamp Thing and it shows because he takes full advantage of the huge catalog of characters available to him within the DC universe. Throughout the series, there is a healthy dose of guest stars from other comics as well as a few references to others.

After the epic battle concludes Swamp Thing returns to Abby only to find that she is missing.  It turns out that she is on the run from the law who are persecuting her for being in a relationship with a nonhuman (is that really a law?). She eventually ends up in Gotham City and is then found and detained by the police.  Swamp Thing then finds her and reins terror on Gotham City by bringing foliage that covers the whole city and we then get one of the great lines of the series "If nature were to shrug, or merely raise its eyebrow then we would all be gone".

Swamp Thing is naturally an environmentalist story and it is never obnoxious or condescending, it speaks about how important nature is, how beautiful it really is because unlike the humans who are so isolated with their own problems and our kill or be killed way of looking at things nature is balanced and takes and gives what is necessary to keep the earth in balance. Nature runs in a cycle by the earth giving life to the flowers and trees and then they die and nourish the earth so they can give birth to more life, but humans break this cycle.  We should respect nature instead of trying to control or beat it.

Gotham eventually gives into Swamp Things demands and lets Abby go, thanks to a certain caped crusader.  But as soon as the two embrace each-other Swamp Thing gets hit with a device that messes with his frequency so he cannot jump into other plants and gets a rocket fired at him and burns.  This was payback from the government for the death of one of their officials in issue 21.

An entire issue is dedicated to mourning him as Abby cries her friends comfort her and Batman makes a speech at his memorial (points off). But we get a hint that Swamp Thing is not dead, and we zoom out to space as we then move into a planet and we see blue foliage form into Swamp Thing.

In-between these issues we see Abby deal with the loss of Alec and coming to grips that shes lost the love of her life.  If this comic would have come out say, twenty years earlier then Abby would have spent these issues getting into trouble she couldn't get out of and be unable to do anything without her man (so to speak). But Moore is smarter than this and he makes Abby competent and doesn't let her get dragged down with depression and when she encounters trouble she uses her wits and gets out of the situation.  Abby is a very likable, real-world character who you want to see good things happen to and hate it when misery strikes her.  She is not the best female character to come out of comics but she was the start of better more competent characters.

This starts the saga of Swamp Thing trying to find his way back home to his wife.  He cannot merge with any of Earths plants so he sends his mind into space. He first lands on a blue planet where the planet is young where he uses his powers to build the world he knew in plant form, but he can't keep the delusion up and decides to try to get back to Earth.  His next stop is Rann, a red planet where the obscure character Adam Strange likes to hang out.  The planet is red and desolate of life but with Swamp Thing's help, the first few trees grow in Rann since generations.  The next planet is a yellow planet where an experienced Green Lantern is starting to lose hope when suddenly all the planets population (that are all living plants) begin to merge and form into one huge monster.  This is naturally Swamp Thing but he can't control himself because the plants have a mind and they are causing him to go rabid. But the Green Lantern is there and he handles the situation by hypnotizing him and dismantling the population off him one by one.  The Green Lantern realizes that he meant no harm and being that there was no permanent damage helps Swamp Thing by teaching him to adjust his frequency, you know what that means...he can go back to Earth.

Issue 63 has Swamp Thing arriving back on Earth, but before he and Abby can be reunited he has unfinished business to take care of.  The issue has a parallel story of Abby planing what to do with her future and Swamp Thing taking out the men who planed to kill him one by one (how he knew who they were I don't know).  The issue ends with Swamp Thing joyfully embracing Abby and Abby is ecstatic to see him.

Alan Moore's simpulan issue on Swamp Thing ends what he had to say about the character and leaves the character grounded again and ready for a new writer to take on the comic (though I personally would be rather intimidated).  The cover has the two embracing each-other, displayed in silhouette walking into a sunset.  The two take the shape of one with their silhouettes saying that they are together as they walk into their happily ever after.  As the two walk into the sunset so did Alan Moore, his run was done with forty-four issues, one of the longest of his career.  The issue has Swamp Thing considering what he's seen and what he can do and consider simply healing the whole world in green life.  But after consideration, he knows this would be wrong because mankind wouldn't learn anything, and he leaves the human race to learn from their mistakes.

Swamp Thing went on to be held as one of the greatest comic books of all time, gave Alan Moore the chance to make his cold war masterpiece Watchmen and served as inspiration for others who thought comics couldn't be written for adults. Neil Gaiman himself has said that Swamp Thing inspired him to write Sandman, another one of the greatest comics of all time.  Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing is available as six hardcover collector editions.  In the end, I consider Swamp Thing to be one of the greatest forms of media ever, not just a comic but as a lesson and discussion piece for intelligent people if they are willing to give a comic the same chance that the so-called educated people would give a book or film.

Thank you Len Wein, Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totlben Karen Berger and DC Comics