Saga of the Swamp Thing Book One

/ Alex Good

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book One

I’d read Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing titles years ago, but had remembered them, falsely, as being a standalone series or a reboot of the franchise. That’s not the case. In fact, Moore took over with issue #20, which is a direct continuation of the events that concluded Swampy’s battle with Arcane, and the latter’s death. Or “death.” That was the end of DC’s Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age Volume 3 if you buy the collected editions.

After tying up the “loose ends” (the title of issue #20) to that storyline, Moore was off on his way, not really reinventing the character but subtly redefining him. It’s a new sort of origin story, being one that leaves the original in place. This is explained through the experiments of the Floronic Man on a frozen Swamp Thing in issue #21, which is a great comic and one that works well as a standalone.

Moore’s great theme in all his work is that of a powerful mind becoming unhinged, and he gets to indulge that a lot with the various characters  introduced here (Swamp Thing, the Floronic Man, Matt Cable . . . Jason Blood is already nutty). His writing is also in good form, with “plump, warm summer rain that covers the sidewalk with leopard spots,” and how “clouds like plugs of blooded cotton wool dab ineffectually at the slashed wrists of the sky.” I don’t want to go all in on comic writers being great poets because it’s a different game, but there are levels and Moore was usually operating at a higher one than most who have played it.

The crowded panels of Stephen Bissette and John Totleben’s artwork goes well with melting characters, wavy hair and mossy tendrils. There are also several glorious full-page drawings that are quite effective, especially since page layout is such a big part of the visual delight of the series. Nearly every page here is shattered in an interesting way.

I’m not a fan of all of Moore’s stuff, or even all of his Swamp Thing work, but as things kick off here you can tell why this has been recognized as a comic-book classic. Moore took an already established character and while keeping him very much the same in most important ways also made him his own.

Graphicalex

13 thoughts on “Saga of the Swamp Thing Book One”

    • It was quite a task, reinventing a character that had never been all that popular, leaving the basics in place but creating a new mythology around him. Moore has a lot of hits and misses but I think this was one of his better outings. But even in this series he had ups and downs.

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  3. So you’re saying it’s better than the Craven movie with Adrienne Barbeau? Hard to imagine.

    Have you read Sturgeon’s short story “It”? In case you’re interested, this is what I wrote about it: “Imaginative wrap-up to this overlong, gruesome tale of a moldy, putrescent, man-like thing rising from the forest floor and attacking a small farming family.”

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    • I don’t think I have, but I have a book of Sturgeon’s story around somewhere. If it’s to hand (a lot of my books, especially fiction, are in boxes as I’ve been building my library) I’ll give it a try as it sounds interesting. I’m just slow in being able to get to recommendations.

      I reviewed the Craven movie over at AoF and see I didn’t like it much. But for some reason I have fond memories of it. Maybe seeing it on VHS back in the day. I know there was a short-lived cable series too recently but I haven’t seen that.

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