The Saga of the Swamp Thing #28-36 + Annual #2

The Saga of the Swamp Thing #28-36 + Swamp Thing Annual #2

Originally released in 1984

Written by Alan Moore

Art by Shawn McManus (#28, 32), Steve Lissette (#29-30, Annual #2, 34-36), Rick Veitch (#31), Ron Randall (#33)

I had read a collection of the start of Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing, so I'm picking up where that left off. (Issue 21, "Anatomy Lesson", was chilling) In an effort to wipe the slate clean and give the series a fresh start, Alan Moore had written out many of the supporting cast and killed Swamp Thing's enemy, a sorcerer named Anton Arcane.

However, death is a temporary diversion for someone like Arcane, who comes back from the dead by possessing the husband of his niece, Abby Arcane. (That premise is as disgusting as it sounds) Alan Moore does a good job in writing in ways that make your skin crawl, like the bugs crawling all over Anton's possessed body or the actions of the damned souls that he dragged out of Hell with him.

The art by Steve Bisette is effectively creepy here, as we get tiny hints of the effects of Arcane calling upon the powers of hell. We don't get the whole picture, but just enough for our minds to fill in the blanks.

The Swamp Thing journeys to Hell to save Abby's soul after Anton threw it into the deepest depths, and he encounters several figures associated with the afterlife along the way. He crosses paths with Deadman, the Phantom Stranger, and Etrigan, but I found his brief encounter with the Spectre to be the most memorable, even if it's just for the visuals.

While travelling through Hell, Swamp Thing encounters Anton Arcane, who he had just sent there the day before. Anton's torture is suitably horrifying and completely justified.  As a side note, Moore's writing was more respectful towards God and religion than I expected him to be. (though maybe that's due to my relatively limited exposure to his work; I've only read Watchmen, the Killing Joke, and Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow out of his comics, though all of them were amazing)

Even when Abby's soul is saved, the Swamp Thing's troubles aren't over yet.  There's a brief interlude where cartoonish animals try to find a new homeworld after their old one had been reduced to ruins, and they discover Earth, thinking that it could work.  The issue is told from their perspective, meaning that Swamp Thing's dialogue is shown through illegible symbols, with only his body language and facial expressions giving us an idea of his thoughts.

It feels more than a little out of place, like a light-hearted romp, though it does have its dark moments. Near the end, a cartoony alligator encounters Earth alligators, thinking he's found others like him.  This goes about as well as you would expect in a case where a squirrel-sized animal walks up to an alligator in the middle of a swamp.

The last two issues deal with a man known mainly as Nukeface.  A drunkard who became radioactive, Nukeface is the embodiment of America's "out of sight, out of mind" mindset when it came to disposing of nuclear waste. His very touch fatally wounds Swamp Thing, the living embodiment of the environment, and he spreads death and decay wherever he goes, seemingly without realizing it.

Nukeface's disgusting visage is shown in great detail, and in case the metaphor wasn't obvious enough, he's heralded by blowing newspapers where the articles are about nuclear waste and cancer. These issues mark his only appearances as far as I can tell, but the panels that end the story are chilling.

It's not all doom and gloom. Moore is capable of including a great deal of tenderness as well.  After Abby's revival (and her husband falling into a coma that he will never wake up from), she confesses that she loves Swamp Thing, though she held off from saying anything for a variety of reasons (she wasn't sure if it would physically work, or if he was even capable of feeling love). 

The two of them momentarily become one as Swamp Thing lets Abby eat a part of him that lets her see the world the way that he can, and the result is a series of extremely trippy visuals as Swamp Thing and Abby come the closest that they can to consummating their relationship, with the two of them sharing a passionate kiss afterwards.  It's bizarre and sweet at the same time.

Moore does an excellent job with juggling heartbreak, horror, suspense, and sensuality in these issues.  The messages might not be very subtle at times (the issues with the tiny aliens and Nukeface make it clear that humanity is repeatedly and extensively screwing up our planet), but with the Cold War raging for nearly forty years, I suppose the time for subtlety was long past. The death and decay on display is chilling, and the writing is drenched with detail. I can't wait to see what happens next.