The Existential Brilliance of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing

So, I haven’t updated in just over a year, as I’ve been busy with other writing projects and general life concerns, but today I have a special treat. I’m going to highlight one of the greatest runs in comics, probably of all time…

Swamp Thing is a character that, on his best day, is going to remain in the background of the DC Comics stable as a semi-popular character. He’s amazing though, precisely because so much can be done with him. And while he is no longer as popular as he was in the late 1980’s or early 90’s, he remains one of DC’s best. Swamp Thing is not my absolute favorite character, but he is one of my favorites. This is largely because of what Alan Moore, and the team of Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson before him, did with the character.

Just as I consider the Len Wein sci-fi based Swamp Thing run to be one of the best things to come out of comics in the 1970’s, I consider Alan Moore’s more horror-inspired Swamp Thing run to be one of the best things to come out of the entire decade of the 1980’s. Period. Full stop. What Moore did with the hulking humanoid plant-creature, with his run of layered, complex, humorous, scary, dramatic and deep stories, is create one of comicdom’s rare masterpieces.

Some of you might think “well, of course. It’s Alan Moore. He’s a great writer.” I’d like to go deeper than that and not let Alan rest on his laurels here. Yes, he’s great, but I would go so far as to say it’s this run, I think more than any of his other work like Watchmen or The Killing Joke, that cements that statement. See, Moore took over the Swamp Thing title in the mid 80’s, a time when Swamp Thing was floundering and on the verge of cancellation. He revitalized the character, picking up immediately after writer Martin Pasko left.

The run begins with issue #20 in a story called “Loose Ends”. Key previous events are retold, peppered throughout the story, for the sake of context, so it fits in with Pasko’s previous work yet completely begins anew.

Moore is complimented for most of the run by artists John Totleben and Stephen Bissette. Their moody, compelling comics art is some of the darkest stuff to come out of the 80’s and helps this run become one of the defining works in comic book history that made comics grow up. The duo’s brilliant use of shade and shadows helps to make the narrative all that more frightening and atmospheric.

Moore’s run is perhaps best remembered for a story called “The Anatomy Lesson”, in issue #21 where Saga of the Swamp Thing starts. Swamp Thing comes to terms with what he is. Moore reverses what the reader had come to know as fact. Before, we thought that the scientist named Alec Holland, due to an accident, had become a swamp creature, a “muck encrusted mockery of a man.” But now we learn that, after the accident, the chemicals in the swamp caused a plant to take on Holland’s consciousness. Swamp Thing isn’t a man who became a plant. He’s a plant that believes itself to be a man. The genius of this difference allows Moore to go deeper and explore the character like never before. Further, his love of nature and the Earth itself are also heavily explored. This allows Moore to play with environmentalist themes as well by reintroducing Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man, in an epic swamp battle. Yes, “The Anatomy Lesson” is a great little tale but the true genius of the run is in other stories.

When Moore explored the greater DC Universe by showcasing Swamp Thing’s journey through Hell, where he meets various Justice Leaguers like Superman and the more darkly themed and mysterious characters like Deadman, the Phantom Stranger and Etrigan, the Demon, Swamp Thing’s role in the DC canon was cemented. This is probably the standout tale of the entire run because Swamp Thing’s place is more clearly defined. He later meets Adam Strange in a sci-fi story too.

Other standout stories include issue #34, “Rites of Spring,” which solidifies Abby and Swamp Thing’s love for each other. They make love through a psychic link, a psychedelic experience that occurs when Abby eats a tuber off of Swamp Thing’s body, causing her to see him as a handsome man. She is now linked to him forever.

The “American Gothic” storyline is notable as well for introducing the character John Constantine, who later shines in his own series, Hellblazer. Taking place between issues #37–50, Swamp Thing travels to several parts of the U.S., encountering several archetypal horror monsters, including vampires, a werewolf, and zombies. Around this time, Moore had the Swamp Thing encounter Superman a second time, in DC Comics Presents #85, which remains one of the best Superman stories also.

In issue #53, “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, Gotham City has become an overgrown jungle. Abby traveled there in a previous issue to temporarily get away from her life in the swamp after a “sex crime rap”, in which pictures were taken of her love affair with Swamp Thing, but is now in police custody. Swamp Thing travels there to rescue her and turns the city into a jungle until Abby is released. The confrontation between Batman and Swamp Thing is spectacular and this remains one of my favorite Batman stories.

In parts, Swamp Thing reads simply as some of the best comic books ever produced. As a whole, the run reinvigorates the industry, along with other defining works, to help comics mature and grow into an adult medium. The sophistication seen here and in works like The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Maus, Mister X, and Love and Rockets, is what the industry has been chasing since the 80’s. Not only does this run define Swamp Thing, it also helped to redefine many of DC’s very minor characters and created major new ones. I would urge anyone into comics, or fiction in general, to get their hands on these stories in any way they can. I myself will be going back to these stories for years to come. Great stuff!