Swamp Thing

AUTHOR: Moore, Alan

ARTIST: Stephen R. Bissette (penciller and cover artist); Rick Veitch (penciller); Alfedo P. Alcala (inker); John T. Totleben (inker and cover artist); Tatjana Wood (colorist); John Costanza (letterer)

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1984-1987

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1987-2003

Publication History

Wes Craven directed a minor hit film called Swamp Thing (1982), based on the DC Comics character created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson in 1972. The comic book had ended years earlier, but DC wanted to capitalize on the release of the film, so the company launched a new series, Saga of the Swamp Thing, in 1982. It failed to catch on and was near cancellation when British comic book writer Alan Moore was hired to take over. Moore had been writing several comics in England, including V for Vendetta (1982-1989) and Marvelman (1982; Miracleman in U.S. reprints).

In his first issue, Moore wrapped up the ongoing story line so that he could essentially reboot the character. His stories and the art team of Stephen Bissette and John Totleben quickly garnered the attention of the comic book industry. By the end of their first year, the title of the series had changed to the simpler Swamp Thing, and because of the series’ increasing level of horror imagery and adult themes, it no longer bore the stamp of the Comics Code Authority. DC instead labeled the book with the ambiguous tag “Sophisticated Suspense.”

The series featured an annual in 1984 and two double-size special issues. In 1987, the series also saw a change in paper format, from the traditional newsprint to a slightly heavier paper stock with more varied coloring and a higher cover price. The run ended with issue 64 in 1987, and Moore’s first two story arcs were collected as trade paperbacks in 1987 and 1990. The length of Moore’s story arcs did not divide neatly into collections, but DC eventually broke up the series, somewhat arbitrarily, into four additional volumes. In 2009, the company began reprinting the six volumes in hardback.

Plot

In the original version, a botanist named Alec Holland was working on a chemical formula when an explosion drove him running into the swamp. The chemicals combined with the plants in the swamp and transformed him into the Swamp Thing. When Moore took over, the series was in the middle of a complicated story line with a corporation attempting to capture the Swamp Thing. Moore wraps up the ongoing story quickly, ending his first issue with the Swamp Thing’s death. Thus, with his second issue, Moore was able to refashion the entire series, changing the nature of the Swamp Thing and positioning Abby Cable as an equal protagonist.

In the second issue, the Swamp Thing is dead. Jason Woodrue, a botanist and vegetable-human hybrid, is hired to conduct an autopsy so that the corporation can learn how to profit from the research that first turned Alec Holland into the swamp creature. Woodrue gradually comes to realize that the creature was never Alec Holland. Rather, it was a plant that had absorbed Holland’s memories. Woodrue helps the Swamp Thing to awaken and escape, but the shock of the experience leads the creature to root itself into the swamp. Woodrue then eats one of the new tubers that is growing on the Swamp Thing’s body and finds himself connected to “the Green,” his phrase for all plant life. The experience causes a psychotic break, and Woodrue reverts to his plant-human form, the Floronic Man, and threatens to destroy humanity for its crimes against the Earth. The Swamp Thing finally regains his form and defeats the Floronic Man, not with his powers, but rather with an ecology lesson. Then the creature and Abby Cable, who is growing increasingly distant from her husband, Matt, strike up a friendship. Abby takes a job working with autistic children, and she and the Swamp Thing team up with the demon Etrigan to protect an autistic boy, while Matt crashes his car while drunk and becomes possessed by a demonic insect.

In the second volume, Love and Death, Abby is tormented by dreams and images of insects until she finally realizes that Matt has been possessed by the spirit of her uncle, the Swamp Thing’s old nemesis, Arcane. When the Swamp Thing discovers that Arcane is alive, he looks for Abby, but she is already dead and Arcane has sent her spirit to Hell. Desperate to save her, the Swamp Thing journeys into the underworld, encountering several of DC’s magical characters along the way, including Deadman, the Phantom Stranger, Etrigan, and the Spectre. With Etrigan’s help, the Swamp Thing rescues Abby. The volume concludes with the consummation of their relationship as Abby eats one of the tubers and the couple undergoes a psychedelic experience resembling sex.

The third and fourth volumes comprise the “American Gothic” story arc. Moore introduces the mysterious John Constantine, who boasts that he can help the creature understand his real identity and origins. Constantine sends the creature on a journey through America, uncovering an escalating series of horrors, beginning with variations of traditional monsters (including vampires, werewolves, and ghosts) and culminating with an epic battle that manages to incorporate virtually every mystical character in the DC universe. Moore never fully explains what happens, but as the various characters combine forces, a giant confrontation between good and evil takes place in the form of two hands clasping; Constantine pronounces the fight a draw. Prior to the battle, the Swamp Thing discovers that he is an Earth elemental, and he and Abby unofficially marry.

In the final two volumes, Abby is arrested because of her relationship with the Swamp Thing, and she is taken to Gotham City. The Swamp Thing uses his power to take control of the city, refusing to relent until his wife is returned to him. After Batman manages to negotiate a truce, the Swamp Thing is shot and presumably killed. At the moment of impact, he leaves his body and reassembles himself through the plant life on another planet. Believing he is dead, Abby struggles to continue with her life while the Swamp Thing, unable to return home, lives a lonely existence moving to different planets, and even helping the DC science-fiction hero Adam Strange on the planet Rann, before finally returning to Earth and reuniting with Abby.

Volumes

•Saga of the Swamp Thing (1987). Collects issues 20-27. Features the struggle with the Floronic Man.

•Swamp Thing: Love and Death (1990). Collects issues 28-34 and annual issue 2. Features the death of Abby and the Swamp Thing’s descent into Hell.

•Swamp Thing: The Curse (2000). Collects issues 35-42. Features the first appearance of John Constantine and the beginning of the “American Gothic” story line.

•Swamp Thing: A Murder of Crows (2001). Collects issues 43-50. Features the culmination of the “American Gothic” story line.

•Swamp Thing: Earth to Earth (2002). Collects issues 51-56. Features the confrontation with Batman and the Swamp Thing’s journey into space.

•Swamp Thing: Reunion (2003). Collects issues 57-64. Features the Swamp Thing’s return.

Characters

•Swamp Thing, a.k.a. Alec Holland, is the male protagonist of the series. He is a tall, human-shaped plant creature. He was originally believed to be the scientist, Alec Holland, transformed by chemicals into a human-plant hybrid, but he is actually an Earth elemental with Holland’s memories. He can move from place to place by connecting with the root systems of neighboring flora, and he grows edible tubers that have hallucinogenic qualities. He is generally peaceful and observant, but he can become fiercely protective of his lover, Abby Cable.

•Abby Cable is the female protagonist. Although she is presumably in her twenties, she has long, visually striking white hair. She is the niece of the villain, Arcane, and strikes up a friendship with the Swamp Thing, accepting him for what he is rather than as a version of Alec Holland. She appears particularly empathetic and works with many causes, including helping autistic children and preserving the environment.

•John Constantine is a mysterious human with connections to the world of magic. He has blond hair, wears a trench coat, and is a chain smoker. He is British and bears a striking resemblance to the musician Sting. He presents himself as an ally to the Swamp Thing, though at times his ethics and honesty appear doubtful.

•Dr. Jason Woodrue, a.k.a. the Floronic Man, is a villain from the DC superhero universe who was once a respected botanist but is now a vegetable-human hybrid. He is able to spray an artificial skin over his plantlike body in order to appear human.

•Matt Cable is Abby’s husband, who has the psychic ability to connect to the dream world. He is increasingly bitter about Abby’s time with the Swamp Thing and turns to alcohol. His body is later possessed by the villain Arcane.

•Jason Blood, a.k.a. Etrigan, is a dual personality. His blood is human, but he shares his existence with a yellow-skinned demon named Etrigan who speaks in rhyme. The two personalities struggle with each other but generally wind up fighting alongside the forces of good.

•Arcane is a scientist and magician who was the primary antagonist in the original Swamp Thing series. He has died and returned from Hell, now taking on the form of an insect and ultimately possessing the body of Matt Cable.

•The Phantom Stranger is a white-haired mystical hero from the DC universe who wears a blue cloak and hat. His facial features are always obscured, and his identity, nature, and powers are all unknown. He often acts as an intermediary between the physical world and the supernatural. Moore has written a “secret origin” for the character in another series that suggests that he is a fallen angel.

•Chester Williams is a middle-aged man with a ponytail whose personality and appearance hark back to the hippie movement of the 1960’s. He is one of the first to discover the hallucinogenic and healing properties of the tubers that grow on the Swamp Thing. He also works with Abby for a pro-environment group.

•Gene LaBostrie is a mysterious man who travels the swamp. He has long black hair and a long beard, similar in style to Alan Moore. He appears in Moore’s final issue and refuses money to tell a story about the mysterious “Swamp Man.”

Artistic Style

Alan Moore’s revisionist approach is primarily concerned with taking the exotic and making it plausible. In this effort, he is aided considerably by the artwork of Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. Most DC series in the early 1980’s adhered to a house style with a relatively clean, bright look. However, Bissette and Totleben fuse a mainstream look with a more shadowy, gritty style. Much like the deliberately “ugly” look of many independent comics of the 1970’s, such as the work of Robert Crumb, Bissette and Totleben use overwhelming amounts of hatching to shade virtually every panel. Compared with most mainstream comics of the era, the human characters in Swamp Thing look dirty, and the men seem unshaven. This provides a gritty texture that sets the stories apart from the rest of the DC universe and reinforces the notion that, unlike those other comic books, the events in Swamp Thing are real. Physical features are often obscured, and the artists often hide key details for dramatic effect. For example, issue 24 features the Justice League, but the art combines with Moore’s writing to render the superhero team irrelevant. Moore gives the heroes little to do besides talk about their helplessness while, at first, the art shows the reader only their body parts in isolation: Green Lantern’s hand, Superman’s shoulder, and Green Arrow’s profile. The reader never really gets to see the whole Justice League. However, on the next page, as the story returns to the world of the Swamp Thing, Bissette and Totleben use a splash page showing the Floronic Man from head to toe. Clearly, the Justice League does not belong in the real, plausible world of this series.

In addition to the gritty look of the series, Bissette and Totleben also experiment frequently with layout. Using many of the visual experiments normally associated with Jim Steranko and Frank Miller, the artists use their panel breakdowns for dramatic effect. In the most famous example, during the hallucinogenic sex scene between the Swamp Thing and Abby, the artists rotate the image so that after Abby eats from one of the tubers, the reader must rotate the book clockwise, panel-by-panel, so that the next seven pages are read horizontally. Then the panels require the reader to gradually rotate the book back to its original, vertical position. The unusual layout accomplishes two things: First, it complements Moore’s prose, which is sensory and experiential rather than declarative; and second, it takes a potentially controversial moment, the intimate encounter between human and vegetable, and forces the reader to be an active participant in the story, making the reader essentially complicit in the action depicted. This combination of ugly imagery and experimental layout is central to the overall vision of the series.

Themes

Of the many themes in Swamp Thing, the most persistent is the importance of tolerance and understanding. As a “monster” in the tradition of Frankenstein, Swamp Thing has always been a misunderstood and feared figure. However, Moore pushes that approach much further. By expanding his focus to larger, societal concerns, Moore increases sensitivity to a vast number of issues normally not featured in mainstream comics.

From the initial confrontation with the Floronic Man, Moore treats the Earth as a character. The Swamp Thing is an Earth elemental, and the stories remind readers of environmental threats such as deforestation and nuclear waste. The hallucinogenic power of the tubers, which ultimately show the eater his or her true nature, suggest the power, insight, and supremacy of the natural world and help to reinforce the idea that humans should learn to commune peacefully with the Earth.

The “American Gothic” story line, collected in the third and fourth volumes, explores issues such as racism and gun violence, and in the controversial issue “The Curse,” Moore depicts the history of insensitivity and sexism surrounding menstruation. In the story, a werewolf curse becomes the metaphor for the menstrual cycle, and Moore intersperses the werewolf narrative with domestic scenes of men telling “time of the month” jokes and flashbacks to tribal cultures where women were isolated during their cycles.

Perhaps most unusual for a horror comic, the series is also essentially a love story—in this case, a forbidden love between two species. The first two volumes focus on how Abby and the Swamp Thing overcome cultural taboos to find love. The fifth and sixth volumes focus on the intolerance of others, the pain and loneliness of loss, and the joy of reuniting. While the two characters encounter intolerance in a wide variety of forms, the series concludes with a life-affirming reward for their perseverance.

Impact

Swamp Thing is one of the most influential comics of the 1980’s. It came during the transition from the Bronze Age to the Modern Age, and it provided the first American exposure for Moore, who would go on to write Watchmen, From Hell, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. For the DC universe, it codified many of the mystical characters such as the Phantom Stranger, Deadman, and the Spectre so that they seemed to form a subculture within the DC universe of superheroes, and it paved the way for Neil Gaiman’s The Books of Magic. It also introduced John Constantine, who went on to star in the long-running Hellblazer series and inspired the 2005 film Constantine.

The series also pushed the boundaries for acceptable subject matter in a mainstream comic book by abandoning the Comics Code Authority and addressing issues such as sex, nuclear waste, menstruation, racism, gun violence, and environmentalism. Moore’s complex handling of these issues went beyond such groundbreaking series as Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow in the early 1970’s. Instead of educating younger readers with politically and socially relevant stories, Moore used this series to open the market for mainstream genre comics written specifically for older audiences. As such, it was the forerunner to DC’s Vertigo imprint, which would publish such acclaimed series as The Sandman (1989-1996), Hellblazer (1988- ), Preacher (1995-2000), Transmetropolitan (1997-2002), The Invisibles (1994-2000), Fables (2002- ), and Y: The Last Man (2002-2008).

Films

The Return of Swamp Thing. Directed by Jim Wynorksi. Lightyear Entertainment, 1989. This sequel returns Dick Durock as Swamp Thing and Louis Jourdan as Arcane, and it adds Heather Locklear as Abby. Coming several years after the original film, this film seems, at a glance, to be inspired by the Moore series given the presence of Locklear as Abby, but the tone is camp and the film ignores almost all other aspects of the Moore run.

Swamp Thing. Directed by Wes Craven. Swampfilms, 1982. This film features Ray Wise as Alec Holland, Adrienne Barbeau as Alice Cable, Dick Durock as Swamp Thing, and Louis Jourdan as Arcane. It was an early success for Craven, who would go on to direct A Nightmare on Elm Street. The film updates the Wein-Wrightson series from the early 1970’s and predates the Moore run.

Television Series

Swamp Thing. Directed by Tom Blomquist and Chuck Bowman. BBK Productions, 1990-1993. This series featured Dick Durock, again, as Swamp Thing and Mark Lindsay Chapman as Arcane. Like the two feature films, this series follows the original concept of the character rather than Moore’s version.

Further Reading

Ennis, Garth, et al. Hellblazer (1988- ).

Gaiman, Neil, et al. The Sandman (1989-1996).

Kirkman, Robert, Charlie Adlard, and Tony Moore. The Walking Dead (2003- ).

Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen (1986-1987).

Bibliography

Berlatsky, Noah, et al. “Muck-Encrusted Mockery of a Roundtable: The Hooded Utilitarian.” The Comics Journal. April 21, 2010. Available at http://www.tcj.com/hoodedutilitarian/tag/muck-encrusted-mockery-of-a-roundtable.

Blumberg, Dean. “It’s Not Easy Being Green: Swamp Thing, Ecology, and the (Sometimes Slimy) Nature of Being—Part One.” PopMatters, June 2, 2010. Available at http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/126403-its-not-easy-being-green-swamp-thing-ecology-and-the-sometimes-slimy.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “It’s Not Easy Being Green: Swamp Thing, Ecology, and the Sometimes Slimy Nature of Being—Part Two.” PopMatters, June 9, 2010. Available at http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/126677-its-not-easy-being-green-swamp-thing-ecology-and-the-sometimes-slimy.

Khoury, George. The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition. Raleigh, N.C.: TwoMorrows, 2008.